PRAY FOR 

THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



5 



PRAY FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



PART I. 

WHY CHRISTIANS SHOULD EARNESTLY SEEK THIS PRICELESS 
GIFT FOR THEMSELVES. 



PART IT. 

THE DUTY OF SEEKING THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR THE CHURCH 
OF CHRIST AND FOR THIS FALLEN WORLD. 



BY THE 

Rev. WILLIAM SCRIBNER, 

AUTHOR OF U PRAY FOR YOUR CHILDREN. " 



NEW YORK : 
ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY, 

770 BROADWAY, COR. 9TH STREET. 

nsjl . 

7t 




Tfie Library 
of Congress 



WASHINGTON 

COPYRIGHT, 1875, BY 

Anson D. F. Randolph & 




EDWARD O. JENKINS, 
PRINTER AND STEREOTYPES. 
20 NORTH WILLIAM ST., N.Y. 



ROBERT RUTTER, 
BINDER, 
84 BEEKMAN STREET, 



The Publisher j by permission, prints the following letters 
addressed to the author. 

i. 

"It seems to me that you have composed a treatise upon 
the office of the Holy Spirit, and the duty of Christians in 
reference to it, which will be very useful to Christian read- 
ers. 

"It is sufficiently theological to lay a foundation for the 
exhortations to the duty of prayer and the use of means, 
and at the same time is practical and popular in the style of 
remark. You have made good use of Owen, who, in my 
judgment, is unequalled in the treatment of this great theme, 
and have adapted the discussion to the mental habits and 
characteristics of the present generation of readers. The 
attention of the Church needs to be directed to the internal 
work which needs to be carried on, in order that outward 
service may be persevering and successful. Praying for the 
Holy Ghost and praying in the Holy Ghost is the only 
method of obtaining that great measure of prosperity for the 
Church, both at home and among the heathen, which is both 
promised and prophesied in Scripture. 

" Hoping that your volume will have a wide circulation, 
I am, 

" Yours sincerely, 

"Wm, G. T. Shedd." 



II. 

"I have just finished reading your manuscript, and give 
you, at once, my thanks for writing it and letting me see it. 
Surely you can have no doubt as to its publication. More 

(s) 



brilliant and more theologically subtle books may have been 
written on the importance of prayer for, and dependence on, 
the Spirit ■ but a more useful treatise than yours for the 
Christian Church at large, I could not lay my hands on. 
Your language is very plain, and almost lacks color, but 
verve and movement more than make up for the deficiency 
in color, metaphor, and illustration. Your points are all 
points indeed, so that the table of contents alone creates 
an appetite for your discussion of them. The importance 
of prayer — as not to an abstraction, but to the Spirit 
of God — not for abstractions, but for carefully enumer- 
ated things — looms more largely before my mind every 
page I read of your book, and then the things themselves 
separately and cumulatively increase their dimensions in 
proportion. A safer, more judicious treatise, is scarcely 
possible. The Church at large needs just the instruction 
your book gives, and the 6 common people ' for whom you 
evidently wrote it will 'hear it gladly.' 

c< Yours as ever, 

"Wm. C. Stitt." 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Preliminary * n 

PART I. 

REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD SEEK THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR YOURFELF : 

I. — You will then enjoy the continuance of His indwelling 37 
II. — You will see more and more beauty, glory, and attractiveness in the 

truths of the Bible . . .42 

III. — You will be enriched with all the graces of the Spirit .... 49 

IV, — You will gain a better knowledge of the Spirit's agency and opera- 

tions in our redemption .55 

V. — You will gain a deeper knowledge of yourself and your wants . . 62 
VI. — You will perceive that the things which are unseen are more real and 

powerful than the things which are seen 67 

VII. — That faith which gives life, will be sustained in your soul ... 74 

VIII. — You will daily grow in the knowledge of Christ 78 

IX. — You will possess an assurance of Christ's love for you .... 84 

X.--You will experience consolation and support in affliction 91 
XI. — You will be prepared to enjoy and to profit by the services of the 

Sanctuary 98 

XII. — You will never have occasion to fear that your growth in grace will be 

interrupted 106 

XIII. — You v/ill be enabled to see the glory of God in His works . . . 112 

XIV. — You will be enabled to heed the admonition, " Grieve not the Holy 

Spirit of God" ,118 

XV. — It will have a happy effect on the manner in which you will attend to 

the duty of closet-prayer 125 

XVI. — Your unconscious influence will be powerful for good .... 135 
XVII.— God will give you His Holy Spirit more willingly than parents give 

good gifts to their children 140 



PART II. 

EARNESTLY SEEK THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR THE CHURCH AND FOR 

PERISHING MEN : 

I. — That He would ever abide with the Church for her enlargement and 

prosperity ' . . . . . . 149 

II. — That his converting influences may be granted unto millions who 

already know enough of truth to be saved 158 

(7) 



CONTENTS. 



III. — That He would enable the Church to obey Christ's last command . 164 

IV. — That He would descend with converting power upon the heathen 

world 173 

V. — That He would continually call laborers into the harvest, and would 

assist and strengthen those actually at work ..... 184 
VI. — Entreat the Holy Spirit to have compassion on other classes and con- 
ditions of men besides those already enumerated .... 195 
VII. — That He would restrain the wicked, and keep within bounds their 

corruptions . 204 

VIII. — You do truly seek the Holy Spirit for your fellow-men, when you pray 
for the progress of Christ's kingdom in the world by means of 

genuine revivals 210 

Appendix. — The condition and character of the French as affected by the 

suppression of the Reformation . . . . „ .251 



PRELIMINARY. 



PRAY FOR 



THE HOLY SPIRIT. 



PRELIMINARY. 

r | ^HE infinitely blessed God did not become tri- 
personal for the sake of carrying out the plan 
of redemption. He has subsisted in three distinct 
Persons from all eternity. This, however, was not 
revealed until after the fall ; and when the revela- 
tion was made, it was made in connection with the 
disclosure of the Divine purpose, to save the lost. 

In the earliest books of the Old Testament, the 
doctrine of the Trinity is only obscurely intimated. 
In its later books, the revelations are much more 
full. The writings of the New Testament every- 
where take it for granted that, while true believers, 
in all places and in all times, recognize but one 
God, they do truly worship three Persons, Father, 
Son, and Holy Spirit, even though their knowledge 
of the doctrine of the Trinity may be no greater 
than is barely involved in such worship, and may 

(ii) 



1 2 PRELIMINA R Y. 

fall short of what is taught in the definite statements 
of the creeds of the Church.* 

These three Persons are equal in power and 
glory. But, while there are three Persons, there 
are not three Gods ; for the Persons are not three 
in the same sense in which they are one. It is in 
the sense of participating in a common divine nat- 
ure that they are one, while in their distinct sub- 
sistences they are three. 

At the baptism of Christ we have presented to 
us three Persons. We know that each of these is 
God — that the Father is God, that the Son is God, 
and that the Holy Spirit is God. We also know 
that there is but one only living and true God. But 
as long as it is admitted that the Three are not one, 
and three, in the same sense, the doctrine, however 
incomprehensible, is not self-contradictory. As to 
equality, the three Persons must be equal in power 
and glory if they are the same in substance. 

* " It is characteristic of the Scriptures, that the truths there- 
in presented are exhibited in the form in which they address 
themselves to our religious consciousness. A truth often lies in 
the mind of the Church as an object of faith long before it is 
wrought out in its doctrinal form ; that is, before it is analyzed, 
its contents clearly ascertained, and its elements stated in due 
relation to each other." — Dr. Hodge's Theology, vol. I, pp. 448, 
449- 



PRELIMIXAR Y. , g> 

If we sincerely believe in, and love the doctrine 
of the Trinitv because the Bible teaches it, it is not 
necessary that in every prayer which we offer, the 
thought should be distinctly in our minds that there 
are three divine persons in the Godhead. As the 
Three are one God, — one in essence, knowledge, 
will, and power, we may pray to God as God. And 
we may also pray to each of the persons separately. 
But though we may address, and ought often to 
address, and worship each person separately, we 
cannot do so without worshipping the whole 
Trinity. 

Each person of the Godhead has an agency in 
our redemption. This truth is set before us 
throughout the whole Bible with great promi- 
nence — that each divine person of the Trinity has 
an agency and an office in the redemption of those 
who are saved. The Father performs a part in our 
redemption — the Son also performs a part — and it 
is no less true that the third Person, the Holy 
Spirit, has an agency and performs a part in man's 
salvation. And it is expressly in order that He may 
do His part, that He may execute His own office 
in the work of redemption that Fie is given to men. 

We see then why they are happy who do truly 
ask for the Holy Spirit and to whom He is given by 



!4 PRELIMINARY. 

our Heavenly Father. We see why God himself 
regards them as happy. They may not be the 
world's favorites — they may often indeed he found 
among the poor, the sorrowful, and the neglected. 
But in being made possessors of the Holy Spirit — 
the very temples in which He dwells, they are un- 
speakably blessed. They, however, prove that they 
are indeed God's children by valuing the blessing 
and by asking for it. It is only by asking, that it 
can be obtained. 

It is sad to think that there are some who hold 
errors which make it impossible for them to pray 
for the Holy Spirit. We refer to those who main- 
tain that the term Holy Ghost is merely used in 
the Scriptures to designate a divine influence — the 
power of God — God's energy, when exercised in a 
particular way. They have adopted this view, be- 
cause they do not, they say, recognize it as true, 
and therefore cannot admit, that the blessed Spirit 
is a person having an individual subsistence, and 
possessed of all divine perfections. 

Now while it is true that the third Person of the 
Godhead is not as separate from the Father and the 
Son precisely as one human person is from every 
other, it is equally true that He is in Himself a dis- 
tinct, living, intelligent, powerful, and divine Person. 



PREL IM IN A R V. 1 5 

We deem it unnecessary to quote the numerous 
passages of Scripture in which the Holy Spirit is 
represented as one who can be the object of our 
acts; in which He is spoken of as performing 
operations which imply intelligence and will ; in 
which intelligence, will, and individual subsistence 
are distinctly attributed to Him ; and in which the 
personal pronouns are used in relation to Him. 
With these passages the readers of this little volume 
are doubtless familiar, and are convinced by them 
that the Spirit is as truly and really a distinct per- 
son, as the Father and the Son. " The Scripture 
tells us that the Holy Ghost governs the Church ; 
appoints overseers over it ; discerns and judges all 
things; comforts the faint; strengthens the weak; 
is grieved and provoked by sin; and that in these 
and many other affairs He works, orders, and dis- 
poses all things according to the counsel of His 
own will. Can any man credit this testimony and 
conceive otherwise of the Spirit than as a holy, 
wise, intelligent Person ?" 

They with whom these evidences of the personality 
and divinity of the Holy Spirit go for nothing, and 
who assert that what is called the Spirit of God, is 
nothing but a power, cannot, as was said, pray for 
Him. Refusing to admit that any such Person 



1 6 PRELIMINAR Y. 

exists, they of course deny His activity, His agency 
in human redemption, His operations, His gifts, 
and influences. They cannot then entreat that 
they and others may be the subjects of His opera- 
tions and influences, and the recipients of His 
gifts. They cannot, we say, pray for the Holy 
Spirit. 

No true Christian will intelligently reject the 
doctrine of the personality of the Holy Spirit. 
Such a one will neither maintain that there is but 
one person in the Godhead, — who is called Holy 
Spirit in certain relations, — nor that what is spoken 
of as the Spirit is merely the power that God 
exerts for particular purposes. 

" Every believer feels that he stands to the Holy 
Spirit in the relation which one person sustains to an- 
other : a person on whom he is dependent for all 
good ; whose assistance must be sought ; and 
whose assistance may be granted or withheld at 
pleasure; and who may come or withdraw either 
for a season or forever. Such has been the faith of 
the Church in all ages . . . Hence the prayers so 
frequent in Scripture and so constantly on the lips 
of believers, that the Spirit would not cast us off; 
would not give us up; would not be grieved by 
our ingratitude or resistance: but that He would 



PRELIMINA R Y. 1 7 

come to us, enlighten us, purify, elevate, strengthen, 
guide, and comfort us ; that He would come to our 
households, renew our children, visit our churches, 
and multiply His converts as the drops of the 
morning dew; and that He would everywhere 
give the Word of God effect." * 

The Holy Spirit not only causes the Word of God 
to take effect upon the hearts of men ; if He per- 
forms an inward work on the heart, He is also pres- 
ent and active in the external world, and has been 
so from the beginning of the creation. The form- 
ing and perfecting of the host of heaven are as- 
cribed peculiarly to the Spirit of God, for it is said, 
" By His Spirit He hath garnished the heavens." 
We know from the language of the inspired writer 
that while the Earth was as yet unfinished He brood- 
ed over the waters and reduced chaos to order. 

The work of producing a new supply of creatures 
is ascribed to the Holy Ghost. " Thou sendest 
forth Thy Spirit and they are created, and Thou 
renewest the face of the earth." u He daily replen- 
ishes the earth with life and beauty." The intelli- * 
gence which we see evinced in the structures of 
vegetables and animals is likewise to be referred to 



* Dr. Hodge's Theology, vol iii., page 475. 



1 3 PRELIM IN A R V. 

Him. The omnipresent Spirit also has an efficiency 
in the actions of men which are concerned in the 
great affairs of the world. 

The Holy Spirit inspired all the prophets and 
writers of the Bible. It is said that "holy men of 
old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost/' 
and that "they searched what, or what manner of 
time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did 
signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings 
of Christ and the glory that should follow." That 
the Apostles had the habitual guidance of the Holy 
Spirit, that He abode in them to enlighten and fit 
them for their work is evident from their express 
declarations. They declared that they " preached 
the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from 
heaven," that they "had received not the spirit 
which is of the world, but the Spirit which is of 
God;" that they "spoke these things not in words 
which man's wisdom taught, but which the Holy 
Ghost taught ;" and that they " could be judged of 
no man," because "none knew the mind of the 
Lord so as to instruct Him, and they had the mind 
of Christ." 

The prominence which our Saviour Jesus Christ 
has in all religious instruction, and in the religious 
experience of believers is necessarily great, but that 



PRELIM IN A RY. I g 

should not cause them to overlook the obligations 
they are under to the blessed Spirit of God. Let 
it be considered that the Holy Spirit is intimately 
concerned in every thing which endears the 
Saviour himself to us. 

He who in consequence of the sweetness and 
glory of His person, and His mediatorial work, is 
to us the chief among ten thousands, was once 
divine without being human, but now through the 
Holy Spirit's creative agency He wears human 
nature, while notwithstanding that He is, and ever 
will be, both God and man, He remains only one 
Person, just as He was only one Person before His 
incarnation. 

We know that the blessed Spirit had an agency 
in bringing into existence Christ's human body and 
soul, for the Scriptures expressly teach that when 
the time arrived for the Son of God to assume hu- 
man nature into personal union with Himself, the 
Holy Spirit produced that nature by His own 
creating act. Said the angel to the Virgin Mary : 
t " The Holy Ghost shall' come upon thee, and the 
power of the Highest shall overshadow thee : there- 
fore, also, that Holy thing which shall be born of 
thee shall be called the Son of God." Having 
created the body of our Lord, and infused a rational 



2o PRELIM IN A R Y. 

soul to quicken it, the blessed Spirit carried on the 
work which He had begun, by anointing Christ 
with those extraordinary qualifications and gifts 
which w T ere necessary for the discharge of His 
office. During our Lord's whole course on earth, 
the Divine Spirit directed, strengthened, and com- 
forted Him. And the work which He performed 
for the Redeemer is to be regarded as a proof of 
His love to us. It implies His concurrence with 
the Father, and the Son, in the great scheme of 
man's redemption. 

It delights believers, and what wonder, to dwell 
on the Person, work, and glory of their dear Lord. 
All divine and human excellencies are so combined 
in Him as to ravish their hearts. And, in addition 
to being the only object of their saving faith, He is 
the central sun in their entire religious experience. 
" Their whole inward spiritual life terminates on 
Him. ,, But, as w r as said, the Holy Spirit is in- 
timately concerned in Christ being that complex 
Person which makes Him so glorious and attractive 
to us, in His possessing the graces, and extraordi- 
nary gifts with which He was anointed, and so in 
all the blessedness and joy which the Son of God 
designed to secure for us when He assumed our 
nature. 



PRELIMINARY. 21 

Flow closely is the Divine Spirit united with the 
Redeemer in bringing about our salvation. If 
Jesus purchased our redemption, the Holy Spirit 
applies it. Regeneration is His sole and special 
work. " Not by works of righteousness which wc 
have done, but according to His mercy, He saved 
us by the washing of regeneration and renewing 
of the Holy Ghost." Having breathed spiritual 
life into our souls, He sustains and nourishes it. 
He carries forward our sanctification. He is our 
Comforter. He is our loving, careful, tender 
Friend, and such is His condescension that He is 
sincerely concerned in our good and well-doing. 
He is our ruler, teacher, and guide. We are His 
disciples. W e are His worshippers, and we humbly 
offer supplications to Him. 

It was said that regeneration is the sole and 
special work of the Hoi)' Spirit. But, besides this, 
whatever progress in holiness the soul may make 
after its regeneration, is likewise due to the power 
of the Holy Spirit working in it. 
f Divine truth is, indeed, quick and powerful — a 
sanctifying influence, indeed, belongs to it ; but 
even on the regenerated soul the truth can have 
no sanctifying, purifying effect, unless the Holy 



2 2 PRELIM IN A R V. 

Spirit attends it, works with it, and gives it effect. 
It would be a sad mistake to suppose that whenever 
a soul is saved, the activity of the Blessed Spirit 
is confined to that one operation by which it is 
created anew. His agency is still necessary, and ' 
His agency is continued during the believer's 
whole life. We should, therefore, feel how entirely 
dependent, as Christians, we are on the Holy 
Spirit's influences, and should constantly pray that 
He would enlighten the eyes of our understandings, 
increase our spiritual life in vigor, and soften our 
hearts. 

The power, then, which is the cause of our growth 
in holiness, and which produces in our souls the 
Christian graces, is no less supernatural than the 
power which new creates or makes alive a soul 
dead in trespasses and sins. 

What, then, is there peculiar and distinctive 
about the regenerating act of the Holy Spirit? In 
what does it differ from His other supernatural 
operations on the soul? Since, in every case in 
which a soul is saved, the Spirit's agency is con- 
tinued after His regenerating act has been put 
forth, wherein is His regenerating act in contrast 
with that agency or work which He carries on in 
the soul already born again ? The points of dis- 



PRELIMINARY. 23 

similarity are several, but we will confine ourselves 
to one, which we proceed very briefly to state. 

Although in order to the believer's sanctification 
there is need of the supernatural influence of the 
Holy Spirit, yet this is not because there is no 
power or adaptation in divine truth, in itself con- 
sidered, to sanctify ; for if it had no such adaptation 
or fitness, it could not even be employed by the 
Holy Spirit as an instrument. It has fitness in itself 
considered, and yet it remains true that it performs 
in the hands of the Omnipotent Spirit, only the 
part of an instrument And as an instrument or 
means, it is always employed. In maintaining and 
advancing holiness in our souls, He works for that 
purpose, in no other way than by using the truth. 
There must always be knowledge of the Word. 
It is by the Word that all the graces are called into 
exercise. It is by the Word, and by that means 
alone, that the Spirit works in the people of God 
to will and to do. 

But in regenerating a soul — in raising it from 
death to life (for we use the word regeneration as 
designating the instantaneous change from spiritual 
death to spiritual life) — the Spirit makes no use of 
the truth to impart life. When by His divine power 
He regenerates a soul, the regenerating act then 



24 PRELIM IN A R Y. 

put forth is not one in which the truth also con- 
curs. There is not a concurrence of both the 
Spirit and the truth in the act, as there is in the 
work of sanctification. The Spirit's operation on 
the soul when He regenerates it, is an operation in 
which the truth performs no part, just as when our 
Saviour enabled Bartimeus to see the light, the 
light itself performed no part in removing Barti- 
meus' blindness. 

Divine truth indeed has power— it has an adapta- 
tion to transform an}' soul upon which it is brought 
to bear, into the likeness of God. But the soul 
while unregenerate and blind has no susceptibility 
to that renovating influence which the truth pos- 
sesses. It fails to perceive the truth in its real 
nature, and tlurefore experiences not in the slight- 
est degree the renovating effect which it is fitted to 
produce. 

Spiritual life— power of spiritual perception— must 
first exist in the soul before divine truth held up to 
it can have any really saving influence upon it. It 
is only subsequently to the taking place of the 
regenerating act, which is the act of God's Spirit 
upon the heart, that the person begins to experi- 
ence its saving virtue. The regenerating act is, 
we repeat it, the act or operation of God's wSpirit. 



PRELIMINAR Y. 2 $ 

And the result of this operation is, that the spiritually 
dead soul is at once quickened— instantaneously 
receives life, with power spiritually to discern the 
things of God. But the truth has no cooperation 
in what takes place ; in other words, the Spirit 
makes no use of the tfuth itself, to give life and 
spiritual perception. Our Saviour acted with a 
divine power directly on the sightless eye-balls of 
Bartirneus without the intervention of any means, 
and in like manner the Holy Spirit acts directly 
and immediately on the soul destitute of spiritual 
life, without the intervention of the truth. It is in 
this way that the image of God is not completely, 
but partially restored to the soul. 

In His previous workings on the souls of men, 
which workings are preparatory to regeneration, 
the Spirit does indeed use the Word, just as, after 
the new birth has taken place, He employs the 
truth to carry forward the Christian's sanctification. 
Most true is it, that it is the Word which in the 
hands of the Spirit arouses, alarms, and convinces 
the unregenerate man. The W ord awakens and 
enlightens him, so that he is brought, anxiously 
and with the greatest earnestness, to seek reconcil- 
iation with God. But what is maintained is, that 
the truth has no concurrence or instrumentality in 

2 



26 



PRELIMINARY, 



that act of the Holy Spirit by which souls spiritual- 
ty dead are quickened." 

But it is objected, that if the Divine Agent acts 
on the soul directly and immediately, the laws by 
which the human spirit are governed, are then set 
aside, and violence is done to its nature. This ob- 
jection, however, assumes what can never be proved. 
It is altogether unreasonable. Why cannot the 
direct operation of the Divine Agent on the soul, 
whereby it is made spiritually alive, be so congru- 
ous to its nature, that under its influence the soul 
shall move most freely? " The Spirit who knows 
human nature and human sinfulness in their totality, 
can make His abode in that sphere which is out of 
sight; and there, with a love all the greater because 

* The terms "beget," "begotten," lt being born again," are 
sometimes so used in the Scriptures as to include more than the 
bare act of imparting life to the spiritually dead soul. They are 
sometimes meant to include all that is intended by the compre- 
hensive word conversion. It is evident that the word " begotten " 
is used as synonymous with conversion in that passage i Peter 
i. 3 : " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
which hath begotten us again into a lively hope by the resurrec- 
tion of Jesus Christ from the dead." "Being born again," has 
also this wide meaning in i Peter i. 23, which is the reason why 
this latter passage says that we are born again by the Word of 
God, or through the instrumentality of the Word. In the re- 
generation of an unrenewed person the truth does indeed co- 
operate with the Holy Spirit in the production of the effect, if the 



PRELIM IN A R Y. 2 / 

it is not perceived, He can work at the very foun- 
dation of depravity ; resting not till that foundation 
is undermined, the building that was erected upon 
it overturned, and a new one raised in its stead. 
The Restorer of souls may thus work among the 
principles of our depravity without at all infringing 
upon any of the laws of the mental nature. Yea, 
everything like undue pressure may be obviated 
all the more by the very fact that the Spirit makes 
no direct assault upon any of the faculties, but is con- 
tented to touch the hidden springs that lie far be- 
neath, and thus moving them, He moves effectually 
the whole man. As sin has fixed its habitation in 
the very interior of the human spirit, I see not why 
God may not be acting there with as much safety 

term regeneration is meant to include not only the bare act of im- 
parting life, but those exercises of the soul which are consequent 
to that act. The Apostle teaches that as long as a man is in 
his natural state, or, in other words, that until the soul's regener- 
ation, or resurrection to life, has already taken place, it has no 
ability whatever to see the truth, I Cor. ii. 14. The inward 
work of the Spirit is first necessary before the truth can be dis- 
cerned in its real nature, — before it can have any transforming 
effect on the soul. 

They who contend that the Holy Spirit is unable to renew the 
spiritually dead without the concurrence and co-operation of the 
truth must, in order to be consistent, deny that He ever regener- 
ates infants, and that even if He were willing to regenerate a soul 
in heathen darkness, it would be impossible for Him to do so. 



2 8 PRELIM IN A R Y. 

and efficiency as among those powers whose on- 
going is seen by the eye of the soul." 

It is of the utmost importance that we recognize 
this point of dissimilarity between that operation 
by which the Spirit new creates a soul and that 
agency by which He afterwards carries forward its 
sanctification. Other differences might be con- 
sidered, but it is not so necessary that in this little 
work they should be presented. 

The personality and agency of the Holy Spirit 
were not as distinctly understood by God's people 
under the Old Dispensation as by believers in these 
days. Not only this, but the blessing was not so 
abundantly given to men. It was not withheld, 
but it was bestowed with limitations. The pur- 
pose and plan of the all-wise and infinitely blessed 
God was to wait until after the advent, death, 
resurrection, and ascension of Christ before enrich- 
ing the Church in any remarkable manner with 
effusions of His Spirit. This is the way we are to 
understand the promises and predictions of the 
prophets, Isaiah, Joel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Zecha- 
riah. The gift of the Hoty Ghost is, by these, 
prophets, set forth as the great distinguishing 
blessing of the times of the Messiah. 



PRELIMINAR Y. 2 g 

We are so favored as to live in the times referred 
to by the prophets. These are the times of the Mes- 
siah. This is the dispensation of the Spirit. If we 
may congratulate ourselves on this account, we 
should also remember how solemn and responsible 
is our position. The thought which should deeply 
impress us is, that without the sovereign and om- 
nipotent influence of the Third Person of the God- 
head, neither the Father nor the Son are of any 
avail for human salvation. We are now, in a sense, 
shut up to Him. Everything depends upon His 
love, and presence, and working. Friendship, 
power, with Him, are the indispensable duties of 
the Christian Church. 

The impenitent should also remember that the 
teachings of the Scriptures, concerning the Holy 
Spirit, sent to convince sinners, and to allure them 
from the paths of destruction, are guarded by the 
most awful sanctions. The Scriptures teach that 
though Pie is long-suffering and kind, yet He will 
not always strive. " He is a righteous Sovereign, 
and men can vex His benignant heart and limit 
His influence, so that He may stop short in His 
work of mercy. And thus this gracious power, 
moving in the depths of the soul, secretly guiding, 
inspiring, urging the sinner to renounce his sin and 



3 o PRELIMINAR Y. 

flee to Christ, is banished and withdraws. There 
are six forms of expression made use of in the Bible 
to set forth the activity of the human soul against 
the presence, power, and grace of the Divine Spirit ; 
these are : ' resist/ 6 limit,' 6 grieve/ ' provoke/ 
' vex/ ' quench/ And the responsibility of men, 
under these influences of the Holy Spirit, is in the 
last degree solemn. For these sacred influences all 
look and tend to actual regeneration — to the break- 
ing down of the barriers which so long had shut 
out all the love of God the Father, and all the 
grace and goodness of God the Son. And, there 
being no fourth person in the Godhead, and the 
love of the Father and of the Son having been re- 
jected, the Holy Ghost is man's last, man's only 
hope/?* 

It is to be feared that there is much ignorance 
among many Christians in regard to the teachings 
of the Scriotures concerning the doctrine of the 
Holy Spirit ; ignorance which affects, unhappily, 
their manner of praying for this blessed gift ; which 
prevents them from so praying for the Spirit as to 
give Him the honor which He claims, and which is 
His due. Did they possess that knowledge which 

* See an excellent article, entitled " The Trinity in Redemp- 
tion," in the Princeton Review, vol. 38, p. 565, 



PRELIM IN A R Y. 3 1 

a more faithful study of the Bible would give them 
of the relations which the third Person sustains to 
the other Persons of the adorable Trinity ; did 
they especially have clearer and fuller information 
than they possess of the precise office, work, agency, 
and operations of the Holy Spirit in our redemp- 
tion, and a more profound and abiding realization 
of the voluntariness and sovereignty of His agency ; 
and, at the same time, of His amazing condescen- 
sion and love for us, they would pray for this gift 
in a manner more pleasing to God, and more profit- 
able to themselves. 

Our ignorance is surely culpable, and no doubt 
the Holy Spirit is often grieved at the remissness 
of believers in gathering np all the instruction 
which they might obtain from the Scriptures con- 
cerning Him. " He comes to us in the name, with 
the love, and upon the condescension, of the whole 
blessed Trinity. To do that which might grieve 
Him so sent .... is a great aggravation of sin. 
He expects cheerful entertainment with us [and 
may we not add the most eager desire and effort 
on our part to search the Scriptures for the revela- 
tions they make concerning Him ?], and may do 
so justly on His own account, and on account of 
the work He comes about ; but when to this it is 



3 2 PRELIMINA R Y. 

added that He is sent by the Father and the Son, 
commissioned with their love and grace to com- 
municate them to their souls — this is that which is, 
and ought to be, of unspeakable esteem with be- 
lievers/' * 

The coming and work of the Holy Spirit were the 
great theme of our Saviour's last discourses with 
His disciples, and He dwelt upon them with spe- 
cial emphasis. 

Surely those tender words of the divine Saviour 
(and they are only a small part of what He said) 
should quicken and stimulate us to meditate upon 
the Spirit's character and work, and to pray much 
for His influences and help : " I tell you the truth ; 
it is expedient for you that I go away ; for if I go 
not away, the Comforter will not come to you ; but 
if I depart, I will send Him unto you." 

It is to be feared that Christians are not suffi- 
ciently alive to the importance of making this re- 
quest their principal one in all their approaches to 
the throne of grace. There is absolutely nothing 
worth having if we are to remain destitute of the 
Holy Spirit. They who continue to want His 



* Owen on " Communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost, each Terson distinctly, in love, grace, and consolation/' 
Vol. 2 of Owen's works, p. 230; GookTs edition. 



PRELIM IN A R V. 33 

friendship and assistance, can neither be good nor 
happy in this world nor in eternity. Our Saviour 
enjoins it upon us to be exceedingly importunate 
in our supplications for Him, and the Apostle Paul 
offered scarcely any other petition for the Churches 
in his days than this, that God would bestow upon 
them and increase in them the gifts and graces of 
the Spirit. Everyone will, upon reflection, assent 
to the words of the great Owen, that He should be 
the great subject-matter of all our prayers, and that 
the chief est zvork of faith in this world is this asking 
of the Spirit of God, in the name of Christ, either 
directly or immediately, or under the name of some of 
His fruits and effects, 
2* 



PART I. 




» 



I. 

PR A Y MUCH FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT, AS A MEANS OF SECURING 
THE CONTINUANCE OF HIS INDWELLING. 

TT may be thought that there is no propriety in 
saying that His continued indwelling in our 
souls will be the result of our constant praying for 
the Holy Spirit. It may be objected that no one 
is a Christian at all, in whom He does not dwell ; 
and moreover, that we cannot co-operate with 
God in preserving our vital union with the Saviour, 
between which union and the indwelling of God's* 
Spirit the Scriptures make little or no distinction. 
But it should not be forgotten that the comforting 
truth, that the Divine Spirit never removes from 
the heart in which He has once taken up His 
habitation, is perfectly consistent with the absolute 
necessity of using diligence to keep Him from de- 
parting. Apostacy from even a real union with 
Christ is a danger which is always regarded in 
God's Word as imminent, and one to be averted 
by prayer and holy living. 

Besides, our Saviour's command is, "Abide in 

(37) 



38 PRA Y FOR THE II OL Y SPIRIT. 

rae." And He enforces this command by adding 
the assurance, that unless we abide in Him, we can 
no more bear fruit than can the branch when dis- 
severed from the vine. Therefore, we say : Pray 
for the Holy Spirit as the means of preserving your 
union with Christ, and the Spirit's continued in- 
dwelling. 

When the Spirit of God is said to make the souls 
of believers His dwelling-place, the meaning is, 
that He is always personally present with them in 
such a way as to produce and sustain in them spirit- 
ual life and all holy affections. 

The Scriptures, as was intimated, make no dis- 
tinction between the oneness of believers with the 
Saviour, and the abiding in them of the Holy 
Spirit. Jesus Christ is said to be in them and to 
live in them, and this indwelling of Christ is de- 
clared to be by the Holy Ghost. So that the same 
passages speak interchangeably of the Hol}~ Spirit 
being in us, and our being the members of Christ ; 
or, of the Spirit being in us, and Christ being in us, 
thus : "And if Christ be in you, the body is dead 
because of sin, but the spirit (or soul) is life because 
of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that 
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that 
raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken 



PR A Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 39 

your mortal bodies by His Spirit which dwelleth 
in you." 

• In consequence of partaking of the Holy Ghost, 
you have become a partaker of the Saviours life. 
The very life which the blessed Jesus now in heaven 
has, His people have who are here on earth. Paul 
writes to the Collossians, " Your life is hid with 
Christ," and he speaks of the appearing of Christ 
who is "our life." 

" As the life of the vine is diffused through all 
the branches, sustaining and rendering them fruit- 
ful, and as the life of the head is diffused through 
all the members of the body, making it one, and 
imparting life to all, so the life of Christ is diffused 
through all the members of His mystical body [i. e., 
all believers], making them one body in Him, having 
a common life with their common Head." Or, to bor- 
row the language of Legh Richmond to little Jane, 
" Just as a limb is connected with your body, and 
so with your head, and thereby gets power to live 
and move through the flowing of the blood from 
one to the other, so are you spiritually a limb or 
member of Christ if you believe in Him." 

Your vital union with the Saviour, then, and par- 
ticipation of His life, is due to the permanent 
dwelling of the Holy Spirit within you. We 



40 PRA y FOR THE HOI Y SPIRIT. 

therefore understand why the Scriptures represent 
the indwelling of the Holy Ghost as the great pre- 
eminent blessing purchased by the death of Christ. 
It is the secret of a holy life. We really live only 
so far as we have the Holy Spirit. No affliction, 
no poverty, no distress, no deprivation can be con- 
ceived of, which is not more than a thousand times 
made up to that man who is filled with the Holy 
Spirit. His soul truly lives. He glorifies God, for 
he exhibits in his life those lovely fruits of holiness 
which inevitably mark the Spirit's indwelling. He 
is renewed in the whole man after the image of 
God, and is enabled more and more to die unto sin 
and live unto righteousness. No wonder David's 
prayer was, " Take not thy Holy Spirit from me." 

As then the Spirit is in believers the principle or 
source which determines their whole inward life, 
let us, when we long to be partakers of His fruits, 
think even of His indwelling itself, and earnestly 
desire its continuance. It is natural that this desire 
should find its expression in prayer, and indeed 
prayer is the means which God has appointed for 
preserving our spiritual life in existence, and for 
retaining the Holy Spirit. When a new heart, and 
a new Spirit, are promised in Ezekiel, it is added, 
" I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of 



PR A Y FOR THE IIOL V SPIRIT. 4I 

Israel to do it for them. 5 * And this is still the con- 
dition on which the blessing is bestowed. In order 
to obtain the gift, we must still ask, and seek, and 
knock. Such importunity is delightful to our 
Heavenly Father. He delights in those who thus 
show how deeply they feel their need of this crown- 
ing blessing. 

We are dependent on God for our very desires 
for spiritual good. Entreat your Heavenly Father, 
therefore, to impart to you suitable longings for the 
continued indwelling w r ithin you of the Divine 
Spirit, and to enable you constantly to pray that 
your soul may be His dwelling-place forever. Seek 
also to be filled with gratitude to the Holy Spirit 
Himself who thus condescends to make you His 
temple. 



II. 



PRAY WITHOUT CEASING FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT, WITH LONG- 
INGS FOR HIS BLESSED ILL UMINA TION, AND YOU MA Y EX- 
PECT TO SEE MORE AND MORE BEAUTY, GLORY, AND AT- 
TRACTIVENESS IN THE TRUTHS OF THE BIBLE, 

TTTHAT has been said pertains to the indwelling 



or permanent abiding within us of the Third 
Person of the glorious Trinity. It is His inward 
work which will be spoken of in this section, and 
in a few of the sections which follow. For the 
Spirit of God must be sought by prayer, if we would 
experience His blessed inworking. This consists, 
in part, in enlightening the mind, that we taay 
know the things which God has revealed in His 



It may be said that the way to increase in the 
knowledge of God, of Christ, of sin, of redemption, 
of things unseen and eternal, etc., is to study and 
ponder the revelations made of them in the Holy 
Scriptures. It is true that such study will give 
knowledge of a certain kind, that it is also neces- 
sary, and should never be discontinued while we 




Word. 



(42) 



PR J Y FOR THE HOT Y SPIRIT. 43 

live. But no amount of such searching and appli- 
cation, however much they may inform the mind, 
will give an insight into the spiritual qualities of 
the truth. A work of the Holy Spirit in the soul 
is an indispensable prerequisite to such an insight. 

However strongly a blind man may believe that 
light exists, and however accurate may be his 
knowledge of its laws, it will not awaken a single 
feeling in his mind, because he cannot see it. His 
investigations may enable him to explain much 
about it to others, but of the thing itself, he can 
never have any notion whatever, as long as he re- 
mains destitute of an organ of vision. 

Suppose there exists a friendly power capable of 
giving him gradually a perfect organ. In order to 
his obtaining sight, he would need to have such 
power put forth upon him. And after he began to 
see imperfectly, it would be necessary that the 
friendly power should continue to be exerted upon 
him, for the purpose of increasing the capacity of 
seeing. The glory and beauty which belong essen- 
tially to light would then enter his soul, and pro- 
duce their rapturous effects. 

This may illustrate the way in which all who be- 
come 'Christians are brought to spiritually appre- 
hend the truths of God's Word. 



44 PRA Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

However familiar men may become with the 
contents of the Bible, through reading and study, 
they must remain incapable of discerning the spirit- 
ual qualities of the truth, until the Hoi} 7 Spirit, by 
an exertion of His infinite power, creates them 
anew ; in other words, makes them holy, and thus 
enlightens the eyes of their understandings. When 
they are thus changed, the truths of God's Word 
appear glorious, and more to be desired than gold. 
The Bible now seems a new book. Moreover, the 
inherent power and sweet attractiveness of its doc- 
trines begin to have a transforming influence upon 
them, that influence being greater and greater as 
their ability to see the truth increases, through the 
Holy Spirit's inworkmg. 

That there is this inworking of the Spirit in the 
believer (though granted only when it is earnestly 
prayed for), by means of which his capacity to see 
the truth in its real significance and glory con- 
stantly enlarges, the Scriptures plainly teach. The 
Apostle, after thanking God for the spiritual gifts 
which the Ephesian Christians had already received, 
prays that the eyes of their understandings may be 
still further enlightened. 

It is to be supposed that the renewed soul will 
desire and prize, above all things, the seeing of 



PRA V FOR THE IIOL Y SPIRIT. 45 

which we are speaking. The Bible itself describes 
but in part its blessedness. The whole process of 
salvation is described as a translation from the 
kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. 
"If a man born blind were suddenly restored to sight, 
such a flood of knowledge and delight would flow 
in upon him through the organ of vision that he 
might well think that all living consisted in seeing. 
So the New Testament writers represent the change 
consequent on the opening of the eyes on the 
certainty, glory, and excellence of divine things, 
and especially the glory of God revealed in the 
person 6f His Son, as comprehending almost every- 
thing which pertains to spiritual life."* 

What a powerful motive does every lover of the 
Bible have to pray most earnestly for the enlighten- 
ing of his mind by the Holy Spirit. In a letter 
which the writer once received from a friend now 
in glory, the following words on this subject, which 
seem well worth quoting, occur: 

" I am much impressed with the belief that if we 
would pray more earnestly for the enlightenment 
of the Holy Spirit while reading the Bible, and lean 
less upon the help of commentaries, we would have 



* Dr. Hodge. 



46 PRA Y FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

profound experimental knowledge of divine truth; 
such as we too seldom have. If one were shut up 
in a cell with the Word of God only as his com- 
panion, and the opportunity of prayer, what limit 
could we place on his advancement in religious 
knowledge? I wish I knew just what is the best 
method of stud} 7 ing the Holy Scriptures, so much 
time is lost in using inferior methods. Meditation, 
the careful pondering of each thought with earnest 
desires and prayers for spiritual illumination, greatly 
enrich us. And I often think that w r e do not credit 
enough the direct agency of the Spirit on the mind 
as well as on the heart. Ma} 7 we not have valuable 
thoughts come to us directly through that agency, 
and not as the result solely of careful logical think- 
ing? Is there not often a consciousness, and par- 
ticularly while engaged in prayer, of thoughts com- 
ing to us from the Holy Spirit, and what limit can 
we place upon such help? It may be a mere quick- 
ening of the mind which then acts according to its 
own law 7 s. Still it is none the less the result of the 
agency of the Holy Spirit, and the thoughts would 
not have been arrived at, if the mind had been left 
to itself. The subject is one of profound and prac- 
tical interest to every Christian." 

It is because the believer grows in the pow.er to 



PR A Y FOR THE IIOL Y SPIRIT, 



47 



discern the divine excellence and beauty of the 
Scriptures, that His love for them daily increases. 
It is of the utmost importance that the young dis- 
ciple should understand, that the secret of an in- 
creasing delight in the inspired volume, is this 
growth in the power of spiritual discernment. If 
you would love the Bible more, remember your 
absolute dependence on the illumination of the 
blessed Spirit, by which alone you can be enabled 
to see the glory of the Word. And constantly pray 
for that illumination.' 55 ' 

Let your heart be filled with gratitude to the 

The following account we extract from the columns of a recent 
number of the New York Observer : 

^ Twenty-seven years ago, in the congregation of my first 
charge was a lacly whose love for the Bible was something re- 
markable. In the confidence of a pastoral visit, she told me of 
her joy in the divine word, and also recited the incidents of her 
experience in this regard. She had formerly read her Bible as so 
many do, a chapter now and a half chapter then, without much 
interest or profit. She was even then most interested in religious 
things. But her chief sources of spiritual strength were in such 
writings as those of Baxter, Payson, and Robert Phillip. It was 
her custom to read the Bible from duty, and then turn to these 
uninspired volumes for the kindling of a higher devotion. For a 
good while this satisfied her. But at length she came to feel 
grieved about it. She thought it a dishonor to God's word that 
any book should be as interesting to her as the Bible. She 
tried to change this, but at first with little success. The Bible 
was still duty. Baxter was pleasure and spiritual elevation. 



4 8 PR A Y FOR THE II OL Y SPIRIT. 

Spirit of Truth, who has removed your blindness, 
and by " opening your understanding " has enabled 
you to perceive the sweet majesty and divinity of 
the Scriptures. 

" At length she could bear it no longer. So she took the case 
to God with strong crying. She told her Heavenly Father how 
grieved she was that any book should rival the Bible in her af- 
fections. She asked this one thing — and she renewed her prayer 
every day — that her first delight might be in reading the Word 
of God. I think it was some time before she felt that her request 
was granted. But at length the answer to her prayer was com- 
plete and marvellous. A strange light came over the sacred page. 
A fascination held her to her Bible. She discovered a depth, a 
meaning, a curiosity, a charm which were all new and most 
wonderful. Sometimes, when she had finished reading her 
Bible for the night, and had closed the book and had moved 
toward her bed, she would go back again and enjoy the luxury 
of a few more verses. At the time of our interview she was thus 
delighting in the law of God. The conversation made an indelible 
impression upon my mind." 



\ 



III. 



PRAY THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT WOULD DO HIS OWN WORK 
THOROUGHLY IN YOUR SOUL, AND YOU WILL MANIFEST BY 
YOUR LIFE THAT YOU POSSESS NOT MERELY A FEW, BUT 
ALL THE GRA CES OF THE SPIRIT. 

Q\ OME of the Christian graces have God for their 



object, as love, faith, adoration, obedience, grati- 
tude, etc. 

Others do not terminate on God, but have our 
neighbor for their object, as kindness, justice, cour- 
tesy, truth, pity. 

And there are still other graces which are dis- 
tinct from these, and which terminate on no par- 
ticular object without the mind, as meekness, hu- 
mility, sorrow for sin, zeal, courage, moderation, 
inward peace, etc. 

One of these graces — faith — the Apostle Peter 
calls precious, without implying that the rest are 
not so. They all have God for their Author ; are 
His choicest gifts to man ; and are the fruits of the 
inworking of the Holy Spirit. 

The graces belonging to one of these classes can- 




3 



(49) 



50 PRA Y -FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

not exist without having associated with them those 
of both the other classes. Love to God and faith in 
Him, belong to the first class of graces above men- 
tioned. But no man ever exercises this love, or 
this faith, or any other grace belonging to the first 
class, who is not at the same time to his fellow-men 
just, kind, courteous, merciful, forgiving, and true. 
" Those who are unkind, proud, or revengeful to- 
wards their fellow-men, are not the people of God ; 
they do not bear the heavenly image, and have 
never been renewed in the spirit of their minds. 
Let no man deceive himself with the hope that 
though a bad neighbor, parent, or child, he may 
be a gocd Christian." 

And in like manner no man can feel and act right 
towards God and man, who does not also exercise 
the graces belonging to the third class — who is not 
more or less humble and broken-hearted on ac- 
count of sin; has not, to some extent, the ornament 
of a quiet spirit ; and is not at war with the subtle 
evil principles of pride and selfishness which are 
still alive within him. 

There are those who profess to love God, and to 
trust in the Saviour of sinners, while they are con- 
fessedly chargeable with no neglect of the external 
means of grace; and there would be no reason for 



PRA Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT, 5 x 

doubting their piety towards God, were it not for 
their lamentable dearth of those other lovely graces 
of the Spirit, which are exercised, not towards God, 
but towards men. The Holy Spirit never produces 
some graces of the Christian character, and leaves 
the person destitute of others, for all the graces are 
exercises of one and the same principle of holiness, 

In answer, then, to your many supplications for 
the Holy Spirit, you will be made a partaker of all 
His graces. You cannot lack any of them, if He 
is really given to 3 7 ou. He who is the author of 
life, is the source of all its manifestations — of every- 
thing which sanctification includes. He is ever 
exciting the soul which is blessed by His indwell- 
ing, to the exercise of holiness in all its forms. If 
it is asked, whence spring the holy desires which 
live in the souls of God's people, their animating 
hopes, their strength to endure, and to glory in 
tribulation, their power over depraved affections? 
The reply must be, that the Holy Spirit is the 
author of all. 

Thus it is said, The God of hope fill you with all 
joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in 
hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. That 
He would grant you according to the riches of 
His glory to be strengthened with might by His 



52 . PRA Y FOR THE HOL V SPIRIT. 

Spirit in the inner man. If ye through the Spirit 
do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 

If it is still further inquired, where they obtain 
their assurance of being God's children, — their joy, 
peace, love, humility,— the same reply must be given. 
For we are told that the fruit of the Spirit is love, 
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, 
faith. 

They w r ho are the subjects of His inward work 
are also sure to hunger and thirst after righteous- 
ness, and this longing after holiness causes them to 
make constant exertion to mortify their evil pro- 
pensities. They are described as those who have 
set their affection on things above, as those who 
mortify their members which are upon the earth, 
as those who, walking in the Spirit, do not fulfill 
the lusts of the flesh. They trust in God and are 
submissive to His will. 

They do not depend upon the Spirits influences 
to keep alive the Christian graces in their souls, 
without any effort on their own part to cultivate 
them. Knowing that it is God who worketh in 
them, they yet make positive effort of their own to 
walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they are 
called, with all lowliness, and meekness, and long- 
suffering ; and also to be kind one to another, ten- 



PR A Y TOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 53 

der-heartecl, forgiving one another, even as God, 
for Christ's sake, hath forgiven them. 

The Christian graces cannot thrive in any soul 
without making it spiritually-minded. This is, 
perhaps, especially true of some of them, as sorrow 
for sin, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, 
reverence for God, a spirit of devotion, and an in- 
ward quietness and peace of soul passing all under- 
standing. You see, therefore, how blessed they 
are who are signally under the Holy Spirit's in- 
fluence; in whom He is ever working with great 
power. For they are eminently spiritually-minded. 
But eminently spiritually-minded men are the very 
excellent of the earth. There is something in them 
so single and unearthly, so unselfish, so Christ-like, 
that the very sight of them refreshes our souls. 

Some unconverted men are not only just, but ex- 
hibit high-toned feelings and a certain nobility of 
soul. But their moral virtues differ from the fruits 
of the Spirit, and are in no sense forms of the divine 
life. They are not conformed to God, and do not 
love Him as true Christians do. But some Chris- 
tians, alas ! have made such small attainments, that 
they almost seem to be less free from envy, selfish- 
ness, and meanness, than many unconverted men. 

Although no man is a Christian who has not the 



54 P£A Y FOR THE IIOL Y SPIRIT. 

Spirit of God dwelling within him, yet some be- 
lievers receive this blessing in larger measure 
than others, because they pray more for it. The 
promise is fulfilled to them. God rewards their 
faith in His promise. Let us imitate the example 
of such. Would not he be our greatest benefactor 
who should succeed in leading us to pray continu- 
ally, habitually, and always, with a determination 
not to be denied, for .the Holy Spirit? We have 
but to ask for the gift, and it is ours. The Father 
of mercies liberally bestows it and upbraideth not. 
Let us, then, ask, and that fervently. Let us plead 
for the several gifts and fruits of the Spirit, which 
are so precious. 

If, believer, as a branch of the true vine, you have 
been enabled to bear fruit, be filled with gratitude 
to the blessed Spirit, the sole author of your Chris- 
tian graces, and who, in answer to fervent prayer, 
will not fail to watch over these graces and bring 
them to perfection. 



IV. 



PRAYER ASCENDING CONTINUALLY FOR THE HOLY SPIRITS 
INFLUENCES AND HELP WILL RESULT IN YOUR GAINING 
A BET TER KNO WL ED GE OF HIS A G ENCY A ND OPERA TION 
IN OUR REDEMPTION. 

TT is not meant by this that the power of directly 
^ discerning the Spirit's workings in the soul will 
be attained. Of our own exercises we can be con- 
scious, but not of the supernatural influence which 
originates them. That is a secret influence. The 
Spirit's operations are beyond the reach of our per- 
ceptions ; they are altogether inscrutable. " The 
wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the 
sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh 
and whither it goeth ; so is every one that is bora 
of the Spirit." 

But though we cannot immediately inspect the 
influences and workings of God's Spirit in our 
hearts, yet of their reality we are absolutely certain 
from the teachings of the Bible. We shall make no 
attempt to state fully what these workings and in- 
fluences are. Everything concerning the Holy 

(55) 



56 PRA Y TOR THE HOI V SPIRIT. 

Spirit's work is summed up when it is said that He 
applies to God's chosen people the redemption pur- 
chased by Christ; in other words, that He first 
brings them into saving" union with Christ by 
regenerating them, and then carries forward their 
sanctification until they leave the world. This 
sanctification by the Spirit includes His communi- 
cating unto us, and keeping alive within us the 
Christian graces. These graces are our soul's own 
holy exercises, whilst they are the fruits of the 
Spirit's inward operations. So entirely dependent 
are we on His influences. We work out our own 
salvation while He works in us to will and to do. 

As already intimated, this is only a general state- 
ment of the agency of the Divine Spirit. To de- 
scribe all that He does for us, we shall not attempt. 
He convinces, draws, quickens, teaches, guides, 
prompts, suggests, helps, revives, strengthens, com- 
forts. Many of His gracious actings are only per- 
formed on condition that we co-operate with Him 
ip various ways. We should know His gracious 
actings, and we should know, also, the conditions 
of His operations. 

The way to attain this knowledge and to increase 
in it, is to study the Scriptures. This is the source 
from which to derive instruction on the subject. 



PR A Y FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT. 57 

Why then have we said that the attainment of 
clearer light on the subject will be the result of 
prayer ? 

Because (we answer in the first place), if you 
spend much time in pleading with your heavenly 
Father to give you the influences of the Holy Spirit, 
you can scarcely avoid attending carefully to what 
the Scriptures teach about His office-work. And 
not only will that which the W ord of God makes 
known concerning the Spirit's offices and actings 
towards believers then be better studied, but also 
what it reveals in regard to His love, wisdom, 
power, and sovereignty in all that He does for us, 
and the worship, honor, and gratitude due to Him 
from believers. 

In the next place, if you constantly pray for the 
Holy Spirit, you will grow in the habit of recog- 
nizing His agency in your possessing spiritual bene- 
fits, and of ascribing them to His love. This will 
increase your gratitude to Him. And gratitude to 
the Holy Spirit for loving you, cannot but have the 
effect of fixing your attention more and more on 
His gifts, and His operations and actings towards 
you, whereby your knowledge of His gracious 
dealings with souls will be increased. 

In the next place, the Holy Spirit himself will 
3* 



58 PR A V FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

reward you by teaching and enlightening you. He 
will give you a spiritual discernment of the excel- 
lence of the things concerning Himself and His 
offices. And if, by His divine illuminating power, 
He reveals to our souls His saving work, that work 
will, indeed, be known and appreciated by us. 
When the Apostle wanted the Ephesians to appre- 
ciate the work wrought in them by the third Person 
of the Trinity, he entreated that for that purpose, 
they might receive the enlightening influences of 
the Holy Ghost. He prayed that God would, by 
His Spirit, enable them to know a number of things, 
and one was, the exceeding greatness of the Spirifs 
work which was performed in their new creation, or 
spiritual resurrection. "That the eyes of your un- 
derstanding may be enlightened, that ye may know 
. . . . the exceeding greatness of His power to us- 
ward who believe, according to the working of His 
mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when 
He raised Him from the dead." 

It will readily be conceded by every Christian 
that a knowledge of the office-work which is pe- 
culiar to the Third Person of the adorable Trinity — 
that an acquaintance also with the methods and 
conditions of His gracious operations — is exceed- 
ing!;/ important. It is absolutely necessary indeed 



PR A Y FOR THE II OL V SPIRIT. $g 

if we would make the greatest attainments possible 
in holiness. Besides, we do not honor the blessed 
Spirit unless we seek to become as familiar with the 
conditions and circumstances of His actings as He 
invites and permits us to become. Unless, moreover, 
we have this knowledge, we shall often be aided 
and blessed by Him, without perceiving that it is 
to Him we are indebted for what we have received, 
and so without the possibility of exercising grati- 
tude to Him. 

In addition to this, is it not true that to have an 
experimental acquaintance with the special office- 
work of the Holy Spirit ; of His work in teaching, 
helping, and comforting the soul, is the way to en- 
joy a sweet and holy friendship with Him ? It may 
sound strange to you, believer, to talk of intimate 
and endearing friendship between your soul and 
the Holy Spirit, but the following considerations 
will show you that such friendship may exist : 

i. The Holy Spirit is truly and strictly a Person. 
He is not a mere power or influence, but a Person. 
He has an individual subsistence, and is not inferior 
in power and glory to the Father or the Son. 2. 
He tenderly loves you, and that though He is in- 
finitely holy, and you are polluted. 3. He is not 
on!}' always within call, but is always nearer to you 



6o PRA Y FOR THE IIOL Y SPIRIT. 

than you can comprehend. 4. He can be wounded 
and grieved by you. 5. He has a loving compla- 
cency in your affection for Jesus, and in your faith 
in Him. 6. Notwithstanding that He is infinitely 
great, and you are insignificant, His companionship 
with you, instead of being forced, is delightful to 
Him. 7. Constancy is always a quality belonging 
to a true friend, and there is more constancy in Him 
than was ever found in any human friend. 8. He 
has already done so much for you (His work is al- 
ways carried on within the soul), that He cannot 
bear now to leave His work unfinished. 

W e are greatly assisted to cultivate endearing 
friendship with the Third Person of the blessed 
Trinity, when profoundly conscious of our weak- 
ness, and of our sinful inability to be and do what 
is required of us, we confidingly lean on Him for 
help." It was said that the Holy Spirit Himself will 
reward those who are much engaged in prajdng for 
His influences and help, by giving them a spiritual 
discernment of the excellence of the things con- 

* The subject of the third part of Owen's treatise on Com- 
munion with God, to which we have before alluded, is the il- 
lustration of a distinct fellowship with the Third Person of the 
adorable Trinity. It cannot but be greatly prized by all who 
would attain to a sweet, assured, and intimate converse with the 
Holy Spirit. 



PRA Y FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT. g x 

cerning Himself and His offices. For thus ena- 
bling us to know and appreciate the greatness of 
His own work, we cannot be sufficiently grateful 
to Him. 



V. 



PRAY MUCH FOR THE HOLY' SPIRIT AS THE ONE WHO ALONE 
SEARCHES THE HEART, AND YOU WILL GAIN A DEEPER 
KNOWLEDGE OF YOURSELF AND YOUR WANTS. 

"jDERHAPS most persons of education are ac- 
quainted with some of the striking aphorisms 
and sentiments of the ancient heathen writers on 
the subject of self-knowledge. Modern writers of 
ability have handled the subject, by whom it has 
likewise been treated as a mere question of self- 
discipline ; and many directions have been given 
how to attain it. Their directions, however, are of 
no value, since they only can attain it who study 
the Bible with the disposition of little children, and 
who enjoy the enlightening influences of the Holy 
Spirit. 

One who is conscious that he does truly rely on 
Christ alone for his salvation, has no fears of suffer- 
ing in his own person the penalty of the law. 

Christ has suffered it in his place. He knows that, 

(62) 



PR A Y FOR THE IIOL V SPIRIT. 63 

although God in His fatherly love inflicts chastise- 
ment upon His children, He never punishes them. 
Still, he is deeply in love with holiness, and he is 
ever longing for and striving after conformity to 
God's law in heart and life. He knows that there 
is need of such strivings — that the attainments 
which he has made in holiness are, in comparison 
with what they should be, as nothing ; that he is 
full of sin ; and that there is no help for him, ex- 
cept in God. He even knows that his inward pol- 
lution is far greater than he sees it to be. 

Now, this sense of personal defilement, and help- 
lessness, including a recognition of the sins which 
most easily beset us, is that in which self-knowledge 
mainly consists. It awakens no alarm or terror, 
because the believer who has it, is assured that 
Christ has borne the punishment of his sins. But 
though unaccompanied with alarm, and even at- 
tended, it may be, with much peace, it is a source 
of perpetual sorrow and brokenness of heart ; and 
if there is joined with it hungering and thirsting 

*after righteousness, its tendency is to excite to 
prayer and diligence in using all the means jof 

grace. 

This perception of his personal defilement, and 
sinful weakness, and helplessness, and besetting 



64 PR A y FOR THE IIOL Y SPIRIT. 

sins, is a source, it was said, of continual sorrow to 
the believer. How could it be otherwise ? He 
may certainly know that he is forever safe, that 
Christ loves him and will never cease to love him. 
He may know all this, and yet how can his soul 
but be burdened by the consciousness of his dread- 
fully defective love, faith, humility, gratitude, and 
reverence ; of his shameful hardness of heart and 
insensibility to the condition of the perishing ; and 
of the workings of pride, envy, selfishness, and un- 
belief within him ? How can his soul but be af- 
flicted to find, daily, that there is a law in his mem- 
bers warring against the law of his mind, and 
bringing him into captivity to the law of sin which 
is in his members ? * 

It is of the utmost importance that believers 
should increase in the knowledge of their own 

* The excellent and sagacious Cecil says : " There is a large 
class of Christians who are sound and excellent men, but they are 
not men of deep experience. They are not men of Owen's and 
Rutherford's school. They want discrimination in religion. 
They have a general, but not a minute, acquaintance with the 
combat between sin and grace. I have learned not to bring 
deeply experimental subjects before such persons. They cannot' 
understand them, but are likely to be distressed by them." He 
goes on to give the reasons for this difference between persons 
of genuine piety, and describes the classes of men who are gen- 
erally the subjects of this " deeply interior acquaintance " with 
religion. There is truth in this, and yet Christians should surely 



\ 

PRA Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. C$ 

hearts, of the depth of iniquity which lodges with- 
in them, and of their particular defects. This is 
the will of God. To have just views of our own 
character ; to see ourselves as we really are with a 
spiritual discernment, is to have that humility with 
which God commands us to he clothed. Besides, 
the path to great attainments in holiness lies 
through this intimate acquaintance with self. 

One way of growing in this kind of knowledge con- 
sists in forming and keeping alive the habit of turn- 
ing our thoughts away from our own attainments 
in virtue, while we dwell on our defects. It has 
been well said by some one, that excellencies are 
not inspired by being often contemplated ; that 
their purity and lustre are best preserved in a state 
of seclusion from the gaze even of the possessor ; 
that our virtues will thrive best when abandoned 
to a partial oblivion ; while, on the other hand, the 
more our faults and imperfections are detected and 
exposed, the greater is the probability that their 
•growth will be impeded, and the resolution formed 
to extirpate and subdue them. 

be exhorted to seek to attain a profound knowledge of themselves, 
of their sins, and of their wants, and an " interior acquaintance " 
with religion, and of. the Christian's inward warfare. Without 
it there can be no really great advance in holiness, and yet it 
involves a " minute " acquaintance with experimental subjects, 
and with the combat between sin and grace in the heart. 



66 PRA Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

But it is more by means of earnest and importu- 
nate prayer for the enlightening influences of the 
Holy Spirit, than by anj^ other method, that the be- 
liever advances in the knowledge of himself. With- 
out His divine illumination, all our care and pains 
will avail nothing. Our hearts will certainly de- 
ceive us. The Spirit of God searches our hearts, 
and knows their depths and devices, and He is an 
infinitely kind, condescending, compassionate, and 
patient teacher. Pray to Him for light, and you 
cannot ask in vain, for it is a part of His office to 
enable us to see ourselves as w r e really are. Let 
our humble prayer be, Cleanse Thou me from 
secret faults ; search me, and know my heart ; try 
me, and know my thoughts : and see if there be any 
wicked way in me, and lead me in the way ever- 
lasting. 

Let this prayer for still further light be accom- 
panied with sincere gratitude to the blessed Spirit 
for the knowledge of your own character and your 
great wants, which He condescends to give you. 



VI. 



THE HOLY SPIRITS TEACHING GRANTED YOU IN ANSWER TO 
PRAYER, WILL ENABLE YOU TO PERCEIVE THAT THE 
THINGS WHICH ARE UNSEEN, ARE MORE REAL AND POWER- 
FUL THAN THE THINGS WHICH ARE SEEN. 

QOME unseen things have a present existence, as 



^ God, His being and perfections ; the Person 
and glory of Christ ; angels, principalities, and 
powers ; the great cloud of witnesses who watch the 
Christian in his course ; the heavenly world and 
the world of fallen angels, and of lost souls. To 
which must be added the government of God ; His 
perfectly holy law, with its requirements and sanc- 
tions ; the truths relating to the wants and the 
present perilous condition of the soul of man ; and 
the truths which pertain to the Gospel, with its 
directions and requirements. 

Other unseen things are in the distant future, as 
our own entrance into glory at death ; the second 
coming of Christ; the resurrection day and the 
day of judgment ; the glories which the righteous 
shall witness after the judgment is over; the going 




(67) 



68 PRA Y F 0R THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

away of the wicked into everlasting punishment, 
etc. 

Now, these present and future unseen things are 
more real than the objects of sense amid which men 
live, and are infinitely more important. They are 
substantial and abiding realities, while the things 
which are seen are shadowy and unsatisfactory. 
This, almost all admit in words, but the true Chris- 
tian believes it practically, for in the language of 
the Apostle, he looks not at the things which are 
seen, but at the things which are not seen. 

It may seem to be a contradiction to say that 
believers behold unseen things; and so it would be, 
did the}' have no other sight than that which un- 
renewed men possess. These have power to see 
temporal and earthly things, but that is all. They 
have power to see wealth, and worldly honor, 
science and literature, elevated station, human ap- 
plause and earthly friendships. God's people also 
can see these things, and they rate them sufficiently 
high ; but they have another faculty or power called 
fattk,which enables them to see the spiritual world. 

What is the effect of having the eyes, which the 
unregenerate possess, accompanied with blind- 
ness to the things of the Spirit? The effect is la- 
mentable. Such men exceedingly overvalue tern- 



PR A Y FOR THE II OL Y SPIRIT. 69 

poral things. The;/ attribute to the things of this 
life a fixedness and a worth which by no means be- 
long to them. They habitually look at the temporal 
things out of their relations to that which is infinite 
and eternal. They are, therefore, so unhappy as to 
be ignorant where ignorance is ruin. " We can 
have no true knowledge of ourselves, unless we 
study ourselves in our relation to God. We can 
never know what this world truly is, unless we 
look at it in its connection with the world that is to 
come." The things of the other world being hidden 
from the unregenerate, and those of the present 
life having such fascinating distinctness, and near- 
ness, they readily fall a prey to destructive tempta- 
tions. 

If such consequences follow blind unbelief, what 
are the effects of that faith in the unseen which true 
Christians possess ? Its effects upon the life of the 
believer have been, in many cases, wonderful, and 
would always be most striking, did all Christians 
possess it in great strength. Their faith would 
then be as the evidence of eyesight, as it has been 
with very eminent believers, and would influence 
them just as much as the objects of sense influence 
the men of the world. Things visible would be to 
their eye but " the accidents and vanishing forms, of 



70 P&A y FOR THE II 0L Y SPIRIT. 

which things invisible are the true and abiding re- 
alities." They would have more success in over- 
coming the world, and would be more heavenly- 
minded. They would still more clearly see than 
they do that the things which God has prepared 
for those that love Him, are the only objects worthy 
of their desires. 

It was in the exercise of this faith that Noah saw 
things which were not present in their own evidence 
to the senses, or to reason. When he was warned of 
God, of things not seen as yet, he believed the 
warning, and the proper consequence followed — he 
was moved with fear, he trembled at God's word. 
It w r as this same faith which enabled Abraham to 
offer up his only son, and Moses to prefer suffering 
affliction with the people of God to enjoying the 
pleasures of sin. The other illustrations of the 
power of this faith which Paul gives in the eleventh 
chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, are equally 
affecting. It dominated the lives of David, of 
Samuel, and of all the prophets. Some were, by 
faith, made strong out of weakness, and others were 
tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might 
obtain a better resurrection. The Apostle himself 
was a glorious example of the power of this faith. 
Hy looking at the things which are not seen, instead 



PR A Y FOR THE HOI Y SPIRIT. yi 

of looking at the things which are seen, he was en- 
abled to endure through all that could be laid upon 
him. He triumphed over temptation. He exulted 
in the assurance that his afflictions were working 
for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight 
of glory. Troubled on every side, he was not dis- 
tressed, perplexed he was not in despair, cast down 
he was not destroyed. 

The Saviour promises His people in this world 
of trial and danger, encouragement — support — 
strength. But you must be destitute of all this, 
unless } r ou have the power spiritually to discern 
unseen things. And this power must be in constant 
exercise. Unseen things must be constantly before 
you, as well as ifitently beheld. Looking at them 
thus, you will see how much more real — how 
superior they are in importance to the things that 
are seen, and these will cease to be your tyrants — 
their governing power over your soul will be 
broken forever. 

Like men of the world, you were once destitute 
of this power of spiritual discernment. You owe 
it to the kindness of the Holy Spirit, that you now 
possess faith, and are capable of the* intuition of 
divine truth ; and that same gratitude with which 
you first received the gift, should impel you to cul- 



72 PRA Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

tivate it. Moreover, efforts to cultivate the power 
of discerning the things of the Spirit, will certainly 
be rewarded. AH the Christian graces and gifts 
increase by exercise, while they become weaker by 
disuse. 

It is ever to be remembered, however, that the 
power to walk by faith, and not by sight, is the gift 
of God. And at the same time that divine grace 
makes us partakers of it, the Holy Spirit is its au- 
thor — it is the effect of His operation. It is His 
special office to call into existence, to keep alive, and 
to increase in vigor that faith which is the sub- 
stance of things hoped for, and the evidence of 
things not seen. " It is the Spirit who enables be- 
lievers to see the reality, glory, 'and infinite im- 
portance of the things unseen and eternal. The soul 
is thus raised above the world. It lives in a higher 
sphere. It becomes more and more heavenly in 
its character and desires." 

You perceive, then, how much you gain by inces- 
santly and earnestly praying for the blessed Spirit. 
Pray thus faithfully for Him and expect an im- 
mense enlargement of your power to discern and to 
prize unseen realities. You will not be disappointed- 
All who are full of the Holy Ghost are full of faith. 
It is equally true that all who cry mightily and 



PRA Y FOR THE HOI Y SPIRIT. 73 

every day for the Holy Ghost, are filled with Him. 
To believers who read their Bibles, this need not 
be proved ; and if they are convinced of its truth, 
how will most of them explain their remissness in 
prayer for so transcendent a gift ? Be not among 
the number of those who are thus remiss. But re- 
member the importance of importunity, for to those 
who are wanting in this, no special promise is made. 

While you acknowledge that you are entirely in- 
debted to the blessed Spirit for the power to walk 
by faith, be filled with gratitude to Him for re- 
vealing to you the power and glory of unseen 
things. 

4 



VII. 



PR A Y MUCH FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND THA T FAITH WHICH 
HAS CHRIST FOR ITS IMMEDIATE OBJECT, AND WHICH 
ALONE IS LIFE-GIVING, V/ILL BE SUSTAINED IN YOUR SOUL. 

fJHHE expressions, "all revealed truth/' and " re- 
vealed truth in general," are of frequent occur- 
rence. Either of them is used to designate all the 
truths of the Bible — all the unseen things which 
have been revealed to us, and which were spoken 
of in the preceding section. Some of them were 
there mentioned, as the being and perfections of 
God, the doctrine of the Trinity, verities relating 
to our future state of existence, the divine promises 
and threatenings, etc. All these truths are the ob- 
jects of the Christian's faith, and none but a regenerated 
soul can believe tliem in the way God requires. The 
blessed effects which a genuine belief of them pro- 
duce in the life, need not be again considered. 
Every truth of the Bible produces its appropriate 
effect in proportion to the strength of the faith 
which receives it. 

But though the faith which receives as*true the 
(74) 



PRA Y FOR THE II OL Y SPIRIT. -5 

teachings and declarations of the Bible in general, 
in virtue of an evidence exhibited and applied by 
the Holy Spirit, is necessary, and is from God, it is 
not life-giving. Those acts of faith, we say, which 
have " revealed truth in general " for their object, do 
not save the soul, though they are holy acts, and 
though they do comfort and sustain the believer, 
regulate his conduct, enable him to overcome the 
world, and lead him to confess that he is a stranger 
and pilgrim on the earth. 

That faith which alone has power to give life has 
Christ for its immediate object, terminates directly 
on Him. None of the other acts of faith are, in the 
Word of God, connected with our justification as 
this act is which has reference to Christ and His 
mediatorial work. Believing in Christ, Coming to 
Christ, Receiving Christ, are the terms by which 
it is described. Believers are said to have been 
brought unto Christ by the law as their School- 
master, that they might be justified by faith in Him. 
They are said to be justified by the faith of Christ, 
and to live by the faith of the Son of God. 

It is not, then, by a believing apprehension in 
what constitutes the whole revelation of God, even 
thotigh such a faith as that can be exercised only by a 
true Christian, but it is specifically by faith in Christ 



y6 PKA Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT, 

that the soul is freed from condemnation and made 
a partaker of divine life. This is the special act of 
faith which is life-giving. But it can only be the 
source of life while it remains in existence and is 
exercised. If it should become extinct, the spirit- 
ual death of the soul must ensue. In order to the 
preservation of the life of God in his soul, the be- 
liever must look unto Jesus all day long and all 
through life. He must look unto Jesus for pardon 
and supplies of grace and strength, precisely as he 
did when he first obeyed the gospel invitation. 

But how is faith in Christ to be kept from becom- 
ing extinct? How is it to be steadily maintained 
in the soul ? We answer, by the power of the Holy 
Spirit working in us; and thus we see how necessary 
it is that we should humbly and importunately en- 
treat our Father to give us His Holy Spirit, plead- 
ing His own promise to give this blessing to those 
who ask Him. 

Do you not see that there is no gift which you 
could possibly possess, so precious as this life-giving 
faith in Jesus ? Do you not desire, above all things, 
that it should be preserved, and daily increase in 
activity and strength ? Pray much, then ; pray in- 
cessantly for the Holy Spirit ; for it is His special 
work to watch over such a faith, to nourish it, and 



PR A V FOR THE II OL Y SPIRIT. . 77 

make it more and more vigorous. And in doing 
this, He both glorifies Christ and blesses you. 

While you thus pray, be not unmindful of the 
duty of cherishing the most lively gratitude to the 
blessed Spirit for imparting to you that faith in the 
Redeemer which is the only source of your soul's 
life. 



VIII. 



BE EARNEST AND UNWEARIED IN YOUR PRAYERS FOR THE 
HOLY SPIRIT, AND YOU WILL DAILY GROW IN THE KNOWL- 
EDGE OF CHRIST. 

/"CHRIST not only existed in a state of majesty 



previously to His entrance into our world, but 
He is co-eternal with the Father and the Holy 
Spirit. He is co-equal with them. He is called 
Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The 
Father of Eternity, The Prince of Peace. He 
created the angels, not only those who continue 
holy, but Satan, and all the other fallen angels. 
" Bj r Him were all things created that are in heaven 
and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether 
they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or 
powers." 

He who is thus God over all, blessed forever, the 
Second Person of the Trinity, the God who made 
all things, assumed our nature into personal union 
with Himself, to be His own, even as His divine 
nature is. He was made in the likeness of men, and 
humbled Himself and became obedient unto death. 




(78) 



PR J V FOR THE II OL Y SPIRIT. 79 

Love to us was the motive which constrained Him 
to do this. When He prayed in the garden of 
Gethsemane that, if it were possible, the cup might 
pass from Him, His meaning plainly was, " If it 
were possible to pass from Him, without passing 
to us, which He had a still greater aversion to than 
to drinking it Himself." The nature which He still 
retains, in ineffable subsistence in His own Person, is 
now exalted above the whole creation of God, so 
that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow. In 
the very nature which was so depressed " God hath 
set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, 
far above all principalities, and powers, and might, 
and dominion, and every name that is named, not 
only in this world, but also in that which is to come." 

One effect of the work which He accomplished 
on earth, and which He is still carrying on, is the 
deliverance from eternal bondage and death of a 
multitude that no man can number. All its effects, 
however, it would be impossible to describe, " un- 
less we could fully reckon up all the spiritual and 
eternal evils it prevents, all the riches of grace and 
glory it purchases, and all the divine perfections it 
displays." 

The world is to be judged, and Christ is to sit on 
the throne of judgment. " Behold he cometh with 



go PRA V FOR THE J10L Y SPIRIT. 

clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also 
which pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth 
shall wail because of him." While He shall be re- 
vealed from heaven, with His mighty angels in flam- 
ing fire, to take vengeance on them that know not 
God, He shall come to be glorified in His saints, 
and to be admired in all them that believe in that v 
day. 

These are some of the truths which the Scriptures 
teach concerning Jesus. But, alas ! how many have 
learned these marvelous things concerning our Im- 
manuel, who have not a particle of that knowledge 
of Him which it is the peculiar work of the Holy 
Spirit to impart. To say that such persons have 
no ideas, no instruction conveyed to their minds by 
the Scripture-teachings regarding Christ, would not 
be true. There is no difference between them and 
the spiritually enlightened, as far as comprehending 
the external revelation is concerned. They may 
even be impressed intellectually by the beauty and 
sublimity of the descriptions of the Messiah con- 
tained in the Bible. But, seeing no divine loveli- 
ness in the Saviour, entirely failing to apprehend 
the glory of God as it shines in Him, they cannot 
be said to have any true knowledge of Christ. 

Such knowledge, however, all have who have 



PR A Y FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT, gl 

been born of Gocl ; such knowledge ) 7 ou possess, if 
you have received power to believe on the name 
of Jesus. The Spirit has taken of the things of 
Christ and shown them unto you. 

The first object which the newly-converted soul 
beholds is its Saviour. Then it begins to know 
Him as it never knew Him before. Your own 
sweet experience, believer, testifies to the truth of 
this. And if you have made progress in holiness, 
it is because you have grown in the knowledge of 
Christ. But you will never know Him fully — no, not 
even in eternity. For the object of the transport- 
ing knowledge of which we are speaking is bound- 
less in its nature — it is infinite. 

Paul felt it to be so. " Unsearchable riches of 
Christ" are the words by which he labors to set 
forth our Saviour's divine glories and perfections, 
and the fullness of grace which is in Him to par- 
don, sanctify, and save. He never wanted to know 
anything save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. To 
the Ephesians he thus speaks of the immeasurable 
love of Christ : " That ye may be able to compre- 
hend with ail saints what is the breadth, and length, 
and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, 
which passeth knowledge. God forbid/' says the 
ravished Apostle, " that I should glory, save in the 
4* 



82 PRA Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world 
is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." 

Nothing throughout eternity will fill the holy 
angels with such wonder and rapture as the behold- 
ing this object. And if the Person, the love, and 
the work of Christ will be so glorious in their eyes, 
how lovely will their Redeemer appear in the eyes 
of His own saints ! 

The celestial vision of Christ which believers will 
enjoy in the future world will, perhaps, bear some 
proportion to their knowledge of Him here, and 
this should stimulate them to make vigorous efforts 
to increase in it daily. Now, although to attain 
this object, the diligent perusal of the Scriptures 
cannot be dispensed with, yet that of itself will not 
suffice. In order that the believer's perception of 
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ may 
constantly increase in clearness, the influence of the 
Holy Spirit, His inward illuminating testimony, is 
absolutely necessary. 

Seeing, then, that the degree of attainment which 
you make in this blessed knowledge will be accord- 
ing to the measure of the Holy Spirit's influences 
which you receive, let it be your incessant prayer 
that He would even fill your soul. 

There can be no doubt that, if we are full of faith 



PR A Y FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT. 83 

and of the Holy Ghost, we shall have clear and 
powerful views of Christ. Pray, then, we repeat 
it, incessantly and unweariedly, for that Spirit of 
Truth, of whom the Saviour Himself said: "He 
shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and 
shall show it unto you.' , 

While this petition is constantly offered, be filled 
with gratitude to the Holy Spirit, who, in His in- 
finite love, is willing to remove your sinful and 
shameful ignorance of the Saviour's excellence, 
and reveal Him more and more to your soul. 



IX. 



PR A Y MUCH FOR THE WITNESSING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND 
YOU WILL OBTAIN AN ABIDING ASSURANCE OF CHRIST'S 
LOVE FOR YOU. 

HpO be fully assured of God's love for me is one 
thing ; to believe it faintly and tremblingly is 
anotner. I may by no means have an assurance of 
it, and yet be a true Christian, and exercise a living 
faith in Christ ; but I cannot have the Christian's 
faith if destitute of every particle of belief that I 
am beloved. If I am really one of Christ's, and 
possess even a weak justifying faith, I must also 
have a small grain of belief, at least, that the 
Saviour loves me in His heart. When my faith in 
Jesus becomes a little stronger, there will certainly 
be a little addition to my belief that I am an object 
of God's love, and I shall no sooner possess a vigor- 
ous saving faith than I shall arrive at a full assur- 
ance that Christ loves me and gave Himself for 
me. 

Even though a soul may not shut others out, yet 
if it decidedly and totally shuts itself out, it has no 
(84) 



PR A Y FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT. 85 

faith at all. If it has a very weak faith in Christ, it 
must and will have a grain of belief at least — a 
weak belief that it is included among those whom 
Christ loves and saves, and this gives some com- 
fort. But if it vigorously, clearly, and wholly 
rests on Christ for salvation as He is offered in the 
gospel, it cannot but have an assurance of its being 
beloved. 

There is no danger that a strong and mighty 
grasp of Christ will be unaccompanied with this as- 
surance. If one of the very things which is faintly 
believed by a trembling soul when it first comes to 
Christ, is that Christ loves it (and this cannot be 
denied), then it is only necessary that that soul's 
faith should become exceedingly strong, in order 
to its having an assurance of the Saviour's love. 

Thus we see that one way to arrive at an assur- 
ance of being beloved by the Saviour is to increase 
in faith. But believers are also assured of God's 
special love to them in another way. 

You are familiar with that passage, so clear to the 
heart of the believer, in the fifth of Romans, fifth 
verse, where Paul says: "And hope maketh not 
ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad 
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given us." 
In this verse we are told that the Holy Spirit con- 



86 PRA Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

vinces the believer that he is the object of God's 
love. For "the love of God" here means His love 
to us, and not ours to Him, as appears from the 
following verses. 

The most striking commentary on these words 
we ever met with, is that contained in an account 
of an interview between a laborious and faithful 
minister of the gospel and a dying young Christian. 
The account is contained in the minister's own 
words, and is as follows : 

" The first time I ever knew the meaning of 
Romans v. 5, it was conveyed to me under circum- 
stances which I can never forget. I was called, 
many years ago, when but a short time in the 
ministry, to visit a poor creature, dying of a fever. 

" The door leading from the miserable chamber 
to the kitchen (the only other room in the habita- 
tion) was built up, to prevent infection, and the 
only entrance was through a window about a foot 
and a half square, out of which the frame had been 
taken for that purpose. In the corner of that 
wretched apartment, on some straw, lay a young 
man of twenty-one, dying, but in the fullest posses- 
sion of his faculties. A few moments' conversation 
convinced me that I was there, not to teach, but to 
learn, in witnessing the triumph of a believer over 
sin, death, and hell. 



PR A Y FOR THE HOL V SPIRIT. 87 

" The young man was rejoicing in Christ, and as 
a passage of Scripture which seemed appropriate 
to his state of mind, I opened to the fifth of Romans, 
and began to read it, applying each successive sen- 
tence to the young man, as according with his ex- 
perience, to which he gave a most cordial response. 
When I reached the fifth verse, I said : 6 Now, you 
feel how true this is ; you have that " blessed hope 
which maketh not ashamed, "for you feel such love 
to God shed abroad in your heart that it must be 
by the Spirit of God which is given you/ 

" 'Ah, sir/ said he, 'that is not the meaning of 
that text at all/ 

" ' What ! ' said I ; ' not the meaning ?/ and I 
looked at the verse again, never having thought 
that any other meaning could be attached to it ; 
1 what meaning, then, do you give to it ? ' 

" 'Ah, sir/ he replied, ' it would be a poor hope 
I should have, if it was derived from any love I feel 
to God. When I think of what He has done for 
me, and how I ought to love Him, I feel so cold 
and dead, compared to what my love ought to be, 
that I would be in despair, instead of having a hope 
that maketh not ashamed, if my love to Him was 
to be the ground of my hope. No, sir, it is God's 
love to us poor sinners that the Holy Ghost sheds 



83 PRA Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

abroad in our hearts, and it is that which gives us 
the hope that maketh not ashamed. Read on, sir, 
and you will see it is.' 

" I read on, and the next three verses convinced 
me at once that he was right, and that I had taken 
an erroneous view of the text, which, of course, I 
immediately acknowledged, and never can forget 
either the comment or the commentator ; both may 
well serve to illustrate this passage." 

There are other passages which teach that the 
Hol} r Spirit conveys to the souls of God's people 
the assurance of the delightful fact that they are the 
objects of His love. How He does this, we cannot 
understand. 

It is delightful to have an inward assurance that 
ive love Christ, and it is what we all ought to have.* 
But the hope which maketh not ashamed springs 

* The consciousness that we love the Saviour is not a thing to 
be discovered by painfully looking within. A boy thinks of his 
mother, and is immediately conscious that he loves her, without 
laboriously searching his heart for the purpose of ascertaining. 
He puts the matter to the test by simply placing the object of his 
affection before him. In like manner, if our love to Christ does 
not reveal itself in the consciousness, while we are looking away 
from ourselves to Him, it never will while we are carefully and 
anxiously inspecting our own hearts. A Christian who is unac- 
customed to the work of examining his own mental states and 
exercises, and who has very little power of introspection, may yet 
examine himself whether he be in the faith. He may do so either 



PR A Y FOR THE IIOL Y SPIRIT. 89 

rather from His love to us, shed abroad in our 
hearts by the Holy Ghost given to us. 

He is, indeed, blessed who is assured of being the 
object of God's love, this divine love being shed 
abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost. If you 
would be thus richly blessed, abound in supplica- 
tions for the priceless gift which God has expressly 
promised to grant to those w T ho ask Him, and 
which He is more willing to give to sincere seek- 
ers, than we are to bestow good things upon our 
children. If we are every day humble, earnest 
suppliants for the Holy Spirit, having desires for 
Him so intense as to be made almost indifferent 
about every other good, we shall doubtless possess 
that assurance of God's love which is one of the 
benefits which accompany justification, adoption, 
and sanctincation, and which it is the peculiar work 
of the Comforter to shed abroad in the heart. For 
He it is, and He alone, who gives "the poor sinful 

by looking at his life, to see what fruit he bears, or by placing the 
divine object of the Christian's love before his mind ; that is, by 
turning his thoughts to Christ. A distinguished man, possessed 
of rare mental powers, was dying. He " spoke of the difficulty, 
simple as the act of faith is, of knowing whether we truly believe. 
As soon, however, as the object of faith was presented to him in 
the free, full, and explicit declarations of the Scriptures, he seized 
it with a clearness and strength that left no doubt in his own 
mind whether he had faith or not." 



g 0 PRA Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

soul a comfortable persuasion, affecting it through- 
out, in all its faculties and affections, that God in 
Jesus Christ loves him, delights in him, is well 
pleased with him, and hath thoughts of tenderness 
and kindness towards him. " 

If this is so, you yourself must admit that you 
can never render to the blessed Spirit all the grati- 
tude which He deserves from you. 



X. 



PR A Y CONTINUALLY FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT, IN THE DA YS OF 
YOUR PROSPERITY, AND WHILE YOU ARE EXEMPT FROM 
SE VERE TRIA LS, A ND THEN WHEN A FFLICTIONS A C TUA LLY 
OVERTAKE YOU, YOU WILL EXPERIENCE ABUNDANT CON- 
SOLA TION AND SUPPORT. 

TN the fifth chapter of Romans it is declared that 



our afflictions are made instrumental by the 
Holy Spirit, in greatly strengthening our hope, and 
in assuring us of God's love. And in the eighth 
chapter of the same epistle, the Apostle declares 
that the condescending Spirit takes upon Himself, 
as it were, a portion of our sorrows, in order to 
relieve us of their weight. " The Spirit likewise 
helpeth our infirmities." Our blessed Saviour is 
Himself called (Luke ii. 25) the Consolation of 
Israel. But on the eve of His departure, He said 
to His sorrowing disciples : " I will pray to the 
Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, 
that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit 



Let all, then, who are in bitterness of soul, and 




of truth. 



(91) 



g 2 V FOR THE BOL Y SPIRIT. 

suffer under a load of grief, remember whose office 
it is to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion — to 
give unto mourners beauty for ashes, the oil of }oy 
for mourning, and the garments of praise for the 
spirit of heaviness. 

But how does the Holy Spirit sustain and com- 
fort a child of God when pressed down by afflic- 
tion ? By taking those sources of joy which he has 
too much neglected, though he has always pos- 
sessed them, and by making him feel as never 
before their power and sweetness. He causes the 
afflicted believer to feel that these are far more 
satisfying, far more productive of solid joy and 
peace, than they had ever been to him in prosperity, 
and thus He does His work of comforting. Let us 
briefly consider some of these sources of the Chris- 
tian's joy. 

The first that may be mentioned, believer, is 
God Himself, considered as the portion of your 
soul. 

Your Heavenly Father has given you the plain- 
est proofs of having loved you before you ever 
loved Him, while He has the most tender pit}^ for 
you in } T our sufferings and wants. Then, His 
power, holiness, wisdom, faithfulness, and love are 
infinite, and excite your profoundest reverence, 



PR A Y FOR THE IIOL Y SPIRIT. 93 

wonder, adoration, and affection. Now, if you 
have really none in heaven but God, and if there is 
none on earth whom you desire besides Him, is it 
not evident that you ought to rejoice in Him as 
your portion ? 

Again, you have a source of joy in the attributes 
of God. 

If the attribute of almighty power belongs to 
God, so that He can accomplish with infinite ease 
whatever He pleases, how safe your condition is ! 
The pestilence, famine, war, the instruments by 
which He executes His omnipotent will, are wield- 
ed, not by the hand of an enemy, but by the hand 
of a kind Father. And as it regards the divine at- 
tribute of knowledge, just as an earthly parent will 
certainly employ his knowledge for the happiness, 
and not the injury, of his child, so God will use His 
infinite knowledge to advance the good of all be- 
lievers. It is equally plain that God's mercy should 
rejoice the Christian, and His justice too. It would 
be difficult to tell which of these perfections our 
redemption more clearly displays. 

Again, in the Providence of God you have a 
source of joy. 

What is there so adapted to gladden our hearts 
as the doctrine of an overruling Providence ? Who 



94 PRA Y FOR THE HOI Y SPIRIT. 

has not felt that his soul has been elevated or de- 
pressed, according as he has believed or doubted 
this doctrine of the Holy Scriptures ? 

This providence extends to every thing. " Be- 
hold/' says our blessed Saviour, " the fowls of the 
air, for they sow not, neither do they reap nor 
gather into barns : yet your heavenly Father feed- 
eth them; are ye not much better than they?'' 
"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ; 
they toil not ; neither do they spin ; " " wherefore, 
if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day 
is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not 
much more clothe you, O ye of little faith ? " "Are 
not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not 
one of them is forgotten before God ? But even the 
very hairs of your head are ail numbered ; fear not, 
therefore, ye are of more value than many spar- 
rows/' If the infinitely glorious Being who thus 
speaks is your Father, then you may well cast all 
your care upon Him ; all things are constantly 
working together for your good. 

Once more, you have a source of joy in the doc- 
trines of the Cross. 

The sinner who listens to the invitations of mercy 
is not compelled to behold justice outraged, when 
forgiveness is offered to him. A method of forgive- 



PR A Y FOR THE HOI Y SPIRIT. 95 

ness which contemplated no satisfaction to justice 
would shock the conscience, and would fail to com- 
mand " the full acquiescence of the penitent soul." 
But in the plan of mercy devised for fallen man, 
justice is fully satisfied, and the law is magnified 
and made honorable. It is, therefore, adapted to 
produce in all who intelligently embrace it, peace 
of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost. The 
penitent believer in Jesus has a sweet understand- 
ing of those words : " Therefore, being justified by 
faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord 
Jesus Christ." The doctrine of the Cross is not 
mere pardon and salvation, but it is pardon and 
salvation bestowed in a way w 7 hich reflects the high- 
est honor on God. 

Thus, we have mentioned things which, although 
they ought to prove sources of joy to the Christian 
at all seasons and in every period of his life, yet 
are never made by the Holy Spirit so precious to 
him, so powerful to give him strength and joy, as 
when he is in the furnace of affliction. 

When the Spirit of God fills the hearts of be- 
lievers, and controls and guides their inward ex- 
ercises, then these sources of gladness, these glori- 
ous realities, these precious verities, clearly appre- 
hended, call forth love, and gratitude, and faith. 



q6 pra y for the hol y spirit. 

And it is impossible that love, and gratitude, and 
faith should be active, and not be accompanied by 
peace and joy. " Let them that love thy name/' 
says the Psalmist, " be joyful in thee." And another 
servant of God thus declares the effect which an 
unshaken trust in the Providence of God produced 
in his own heart : "Although the fig-tree shall not 
blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines ; the 
labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield 
no meat ; the flocks shall be cut off from the fold, 
and there shall be no herd in the stalls ; yet I w T ill 
rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my 
salvation." 

Be, then, diligent and faithful in using the ap- 
pointed means for obtaining the Holy Spirit ; be 
incessant and unwearied in your prayers for Him, 
and then, when troubles multiply and threaten to 
overwhelm you, you will find in your covenant- 
keeping God as your portion ; in His glorious per- 
fections and in His Providence ; in the doctrines of 
the cross ; in the sympathy of Jesus ; in the graces 
of a renewed soul ; and in that mysterious support- 
ing grace of which the indwelling Spirit is the 
author, springs of strength and consolation, so 
precious as to make you thank God for sending 
afflictions upon you. The Holy Spirit is, indeed, 



PR A V FOR THE II OL Y SPIRIT. . gy 

a gift to be prized by the afflicted. But then, you 
must pray while prosperous and in health. It is an 
oft-repeated remark of that delightful commentator, 
Matthew Henry : " It is good when afflictions find 
the wheels of prayer a-going." 

For the consolation and support which is prom- 
ised you, believer, in your sorrows, and of which, 
when afflicted, }^ou never need be destitute, you 
are bound to exercise tender gratitude to the com- 
passionate Spirit of God. 
5 



XI. 



THE MORE YOU PRAY FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE BETTER 
WILL YOU BE PREPARED TO ENJOY AND TO PROFIT BY 
THE SERVICES OF THE SANCTUARY. 

npHB worship of God in the tabernacle or temple 



was a service in which the pious Israelite greatly 
delighted. We find in many of the psalms the most 
ardent longings expressed for the ordinances and 
house of God. We hear the devout Jew exclaim- 
ing, in the ardor of his holy emotions : " How 
amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts ! My 
soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of 
the Lord. Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy 
house and the place where thine honor dwelleth. 
A day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I 
had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my 
God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. One 
thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek 
after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all 
the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the 
Lore, and to inquire in his temple.'* 




(93) 



PRA Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. gg 

Why this panting of the soul after a place in the 
earthly courts ? What was to be found there 
which could so ravish the hearts of God's ancient 
people as to call forth such exclamations as these ? 
It was the transporting presence of the Lord of 
glory. The sanctuary of old was the place which 
G-od had chosen to set His name there. It was 
expressly designed to symbolize the precious doc- 
trine of the divine inhabitation and peculiar pres- 
ence with the chosen people. How could it, then, 
but be dear to their hearts ? 

The house of God contained much which made 
it a delightful place of resort to the pious Jew, — as 
the lamb, with its blood flowing from the altar, 
which exhibited by anticipation the " Lamb of God 
which taketh away the sin of the world/' — -the laver 
of purifying water, which taught so forcibly the 
doctrine of cleansing from sin by the sanctifying 
influences of the Hoi) 7 Spirit ; the golden candle- 
stick, that emblem of divine knowledge, constantly 
illuminating the sacred place ; the table of shew- 
bread, which symbolized the grace and truth by 
which the soul is nourished in the divine life ; the - 
ascending smoke, and the sweet odor of the per- 
fume, which was burnt on the altar of incense, rep- 
resenting the prayers of the saints and the interces- 



IOO PR A Y FOR THE II OL Y SPIRIT, 

sion of our great High- Priest ; the ark ; the mercy 
seat ; the golden cherubim ; and the divine glory 
visibly resting over the ark. 

But never was the pious Israelite so conscious of 
attachment to the courts of the Lord as when he 
was absent from the Sanctuary and unable to ap- 
proach it. It was when a wanderer in the wilder- 
ness of Judah that David gave vent to those long- 
ings for the Lord's house, which we find in the 
sixty-third psalm : " O God, thou art my God ; 
early will I seek thee ; my soul thirsteth for thee ; 
my flesh longeth for thee, in a dry and thirsty land, 
where no water is, to see thy power and thy glory, 
so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary." 

When the ancient servant of God was under the 
necessity X)f absenting himself from the sanctuary, 
his views of the coming Saviour became, it may be, 
faint and indistinct ; but when he was able to resort 
to it, he learned more and more concerning the 
love of that Redeemer for whom he looked. The 
doctrines of grace, such as the defilement of the 
human heart.; the necessity of divine influence ; 
the nature and necessity of the atonement ; Christ's 
intercession ; the power of prayer ; the pity of our 
Father in heaven ; the blessedness of heaven as the 
abode of God : these truths were so exhibited to 



PR A Y FOR THE II OL Y SPIRIT. IO l 

him in the sanctuary as greatly to strengthen and 
comfort his soul. 

It is essential to the character of a believer to 
hunger and thirst after righteousness, and the 
ancient saints found, as God's people now find, that 
an attendance on the sanctuary was a powerful 
means of grace. Their own prayers and praises, 
as well as those offered by holy men around them ; 
the very presence, indeed, of devout, humble fel- 
low-worshippers : all tended to benefit their souls 
and to promote their sanctification. 

We should not entertain lower ideas of the sanc- 
tuaries in which we worship than the Israelites did 
of theirs. In our sancturies the truth is not dimly 
exhibited, as it was in the tabernacle and temple of 
old, but is made to .shine like the light* of noon- 
day. The ancient Jews were, indeed, familiar with 
the promises of the covenant of grace, and they had 
much experimental knowledge. They had experi- 
ence of the Christian graces of repentance and faith, 
of love, joy, and peace. They were able to answer 
those two great questions : How can man be just 
with God ? and how can he be cleansed from the 
pollution of sin ? Still, the hearers of the gospel 
are far more favored than were the Jews who lived 
under the dispensation of the law. 



102 P&A y FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

How would it have rejoiced the saints of old to 
hear Christ preached as He is now preached in 
temples dedicated to His worship ! The doctrine 
of Christ's righteousness, His ascension, and glory, 
and the way of salvation were in a great measure 
hid from the ancient Jews, under the veil of types 
and shadows, and more obscure revelations. None 
of them could ever hear the wonderful truths an- 
nounced that " God was manifest in the flesh, justi- 
fied in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the 
Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into 
glory." 

But now these precious truths are constantly 
held up in the Word and sacraments. The places 
where Gocl is worshipped b} 7 the assemblies of His 
people, where prayer and praise are offered, and 
where His Word is preached and ordinances dis- 
pensed, are the places where God has now recorded 
His name. In these assemblies all who desire any 
blessing of the Lord should present themselves. 
" Often has he spoken peace in his own house to 
his waiting people ; so that they have said in their 
hearts, ' It is good to be here/ and have felt reluc- 
tant to depart. Souls oppressed with a load of 
guilt have, by waiting on the Lord in His house, 
often been relieved of their burden by rolling it on 



PR A Y FOR THE 110 L Y SPIRIT. I0 3 

the Lord, according to His gracious invitation ; 
that is, by faith in Christ crucified, they have 
obtained assurance of the pardon of their sins. 
And persons whose minds are clouded and per- 
plexed with doubts and unbelieving suggestions, 
by going into the sanctuary, like Asaph, experience 
a speedy relief, and find their faith, which was 
shaken, wonderfully confirmed." 

Whenever we enjoy and are profited by the ex- 
ercises of public worship, we are to ascribe it to 
God's special goodness to us. Whenever we are so 
favored, we should gratefully recognize the pres- 
ence and assistance of the Holy Spirit sent to us by 
the Father. 

The possession of spiritual life, and a relish for 
divine things, are indeed indispensable to fit us for 
the services of the sanctuary ; but how often do 
God's children in whom spiritual life abides, fail to 
derive benefit from their attempts to unite with other 
Christians in public worship. They would never 
come short of a blessing were they always on such 
occasions specially aided by the Spirit of God. 
We are to remember that the Holy Spirit is not 
only the source of spiritual life, but of all its manifes- 
tations. For each particular Christian act, His in- 
working is necessary. Souls born of God are the 



104 PRA Y F0R THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

only ones who can truly worship Him ; but even 
they, whenever they attempt to offer such worship, 
must be strengthened for the employment by a 
divine influence. Hence, the disciples of Christ are 
said to have access to God by the Spirit, and to 
pray and sing in the Spirit. 

We are employed when in the house of God not 
only in praying and praising, but in listening to the 
Word. But in order that the Word may do us 
good, the Spirit must attend it and give it effect. 
He must do so, on each particular occasion on 
which we listen to the truth. The sovereignty of 
the blessed Spirit in His operations should not be 
forgotten. His influence is " not the influence of a 
uniformly acting force co-operating with the truth ; 
but that of a Person, acting when and w 7 here he 
pleases, more at one time than at another/' 

From all this we see the connection between 
praying much for the Holy Spirit and being bless- 
ed in our waiting on God in His house. It is indeed 
the special office of the Spirit to assist us in acts of 
worship, and to give effect to the truth when we 
hear it ; but He is nevertheless a Person, and a volun- 
tary Agent, and sovereign in all His operations. It 
is for this reason that we remind you that you must 
abound in humble and importunate prayer for the 



PR A Y FOR THE HOL V SPIRIT. . IQ g 

Holy Spirit, if you would enjoy , and be profited by 
the services of the sanctuary. 

And when you find that they refresh and 
strengthen you, remember to whose kindness you 
are indebted for the blessing, and let sincere 
gratitude to Him fill your heart. 



XII. 



LET YOUR SUPPLICA TION FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT BE UN IN PER- 
MITTED, AND YOU NEED FEAR NO INTERRUPTION TO 
YOUR GROWTH IN GRACE. 



LTHOUGH it is God who works in us to 



will and to do, yet great exertion on our part 
is necessary in order to uninterrupted progress in the 
divine life. For does it not require great exertion 
to watch; to deny ourselves; to become familiar 
with divine truth as contained in the Scriptures ; 
to pray much in secret; to keep cur appetites in 
subjection ; to exercise an habitual vigilance 
against besetting sins and temptations ; to put 
a restraint on evil thought and imaginations ; and 
to keep down likewise those evil passions, pride, 
resentment, envy, etc. ? Does not all this, we ask, 
require vigorous effort ? And yet all this is neces- 
sary if we gro w in grace. 

No man expects to obtain worldly prosperity 
without industry, or knowledge without labor; and 
we see what toil men cheerfully undergo for the 
attainment of these. Now in regard to the matter 




(106) 



PR A Y FOR THE IIOL Y SPIRIT. I0 jr 

of making attainments in holiness, the necessity of 
energetic effort in order to success, is equally God's 
law. 

Even inspired men found that diligence and 
great effort were indispensable if they would grow 
in grace. Had Paul been slothful in spiritual 
things, he never would have become, with all his 
inspiration, the eminently holy mail he actually 
became. He knew that active and energetic effort 
was necessary, and therefore, notwithstanding he 
enjoyed the full assurance of Christ's love for him, 
he said, " I keep under my body, and bring it into 
subjection, lest that by any means when I have 
preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." 

He also lets us know in many places that he kept 
up a constant opposition to the subtle evils of his 
heart, which, in common with all the other people 
of God, he found it still more difficult to do, than 
to hold his bodily appetites in subjection-. Some 
men seem to think that only those Christians who 
have strong bodily passions, have severe conflicts. 
Whereas, "what belongs to the body is in a certain 
sense external ; the evil dispositions of the heart 
are in more intimate connection with the soul. 
Pride, vanity, envy, malice, the love of self, are 
more formidable foes than mere bodily appetites* 



108 FJ ?A Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

They are stronger, more enduring and more capable 
of deceit. As these dispositions are deeply seated 
in our nature, the putting off the old man which is 
corrupt or the destruction of these unholy principles 
is the most difficult of all Christian duties." 

We see, from all this, that steady growth in grace 
involves unceasing, unintermitted conflict with 
spiritual foes ; that no man, in fact, can be a be- 
liever at all, without engaging in a warfare. There 
is an inward conflict, it is true, which men may 
have who are not Christians. It is sometimes the 
case that a struggle goes on even in them, between 
reason and conscience on the one hand, and passion 
on the other. But there is no analogy between 
this inward warfare and that which the real child 
of God wages, because the contest in which the 
latter is engaged is clue to the opposition between 
the sir still remaining within him and the principle 
of spiritual life which has been supernaturally im- 
planted in his soul. 

Whenever the real disciples of Jesus fail in their 
conflicts, they blame themselves, and they are right 
in doing so. They know that they have failed 
through indolence, self-confidence, or shameful dis- 
couragement. They know that they have neglected 
to watch and pray as they ought to have done. 



PR A V FOR THE II OL Y SPIRIT. i 0 g 

Perhaps very few Christians are spiritually-minded. 
In many, alas ! the spirit of the world has gained 
such an ascendency, that we can see nothing in 
their lives to distinguish them from the multitudes 
who make no pretensions to religion. 

Cases of spiritual-declension are so common, that 
some have thought that there is no way of avoiding 
the evil ; but for this opinion there is no foundation. 
While it is true that they who live near to God 
have not always equal life and comfort, the supposi- 
tion finds no support in the Bible that it is impos- 
sible for any believer to live near to God all his life. 
The declaration of the Bible addressed to every 
Christian is : " This is the will of God, even your 
sanctification." Surely, then, it is possible for every 
Christian, who is faithful in using the appointed 
means, to grow in grace to the very end of his 
course. There are hindrances enough to progress ; 
but, through Christ strengthening him, the believer 
can surmount them all ; left to himself, a single ob- 
stacle would be too much for him. 

Doubtless, among Christians living in neglect 
and obscurity, and who attract no attention from 
men, there are, in every age, many who walk 
humbly with God all their lives, and grow in grace 
without interruption, until the Saviour takes them 



1 10 PR A Y FOR THE IIOL Y SPIRIT, 

to Himself. Yes, many of the best saints, and who 
are most dear to the Saviour, live and die unknown. 
It is a remark of John Newton, that " if an angel 
were sent to find the most perfect man, he would 
probably not find him composing a body of divinity, 
but lying a cripple in some poor-house, whom the 
parish wish dead ; a man humbled before God, with 
far lower thoughts of himself than others have of 
him." We take far too little pains to visit and 
become acquainted with the godly and humble 
poor. 

While we are to set it down as a certainty that 
we can make no progress in piety without vigorous, 
continued effort, yet we must also remember that 
failure will be the inevitable result of depending on 
ourselves, to the neglect of the divine agency. We 
must show how deeply we realize and feel this de- 
pendence, by praying perpetually and with intense 
earnestness for the Spirit's influences. Could we 
be certain of receiving the Holy Spirit largely 
every day from this time till the day of our death, 
we could count with certainty on our unimpeded 
progress as Christians during the remainder of our 
lives. And what is there to hinder us from receiv- 
ing Him and His blessed influences in abundant 
measure every da)' ? Is not our Heavenly Father 



PRA Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 1 1 1 

bound by His promise, and has He not said that 
parents are not so willing to give good things to 
their children as He is to give the Holy Spirit to 
them that ask Him ? 

Let any man show, if he can, how it would be 
possible for the Christian to take any backward 
steps ; how it would be possible, indeed, for the 
Christian not to be incessantly making progress, 
who should every day of his life pray with the 
deepest sincerity and earnestness to be led, gov- 
erned, and controlled by the Holy Spirit 

The question, believer, which you now ask is not, 
fi What must I do to be saved ? " Your salvation 
is already begun. Your whole relation to the law 
is now changed. You are now in a justified state. 
But your question, as far as your own soul is con- 
cerned, is : " What shall I do to grow steadily in 
grace, to make progress each day in the divine life, 
without declining and without halting ?" The Scrip- 
tures reply to this interrogation, by exhorting you 
to be always filled with the Spirit, at the same time 
teaching, with sufficient plainness, that they are full 
of the Holy Ghost who incessantly pray for Him. 

At every step of your advancement in holiness, 
if, indeed, you are advancing, let gratitude to the 
blessed Spirit be in lively exercise. 



XIII. 



THE HOLY SPIRIT, WHOSE OFFICE IT IS TO REVEAL THE CHA- 
RACTER AND PERFECTIONS OF GOD, WILL, IN ANSWER TO 
EARNEST PRAYER, ENABLE YOU TO SEE THE GLORY OF 
' GOD IN HIS WORKS. 

TN the account of the conversion of one who sub- 



sequently became a distinguished and success- 
ful minister of the gospel, it is stated that " he was 
riding at a late hour one evening, when the moon 
and stars shone with unusual brightness, and when 
everything around him was calculated to excite re- 
flection. 

" While he w r as meditating on the beauty and 
grandeur of the scene which the firmament pre- 
sented, and was saying to himself how transcend- 
ently glorious must be the Author of all this beauty 
and grandeur, the thought struck him with the 
suddenness and force of lightning : ' But what do I 
know of this God ? Have I ever sought His favor 
or made Him my friend ? ' This happy impression, 
which proved by its permanency and its effects to 




(112) 



PR A Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 113 

have come from the best of all sources, never left 
him until he took refuge in Christ as the hope and 
life of his soul. ,, 

The person of whom this account is given, felt 
his soul stirred within him by the .exquisite beauty 
and sublimity of the scene which his eyes surveyed. 
But he did not stop there. He thought of God, 
and was convinced that He who could create such 
a world must be a Being of infinite power, wisdom, 
and goodness. Whether he immediately saw more 
of God than this, we do not know. If he did, — if the 
perfections of God, thus revealed to him, possessed 
for him a sweet divine glory and loveliness, — his 
regeneration had already taken place, when, speak- 
ing to himself, he gave utterance to his thoughts 
concerning the adorable Creator. The Holy Spirit 
had already begun to show unto him, as He does 
in some degree to every believer, the glory of God 
in His works. 

A person may derive keen enjoyment from the 
survey of some beautiful work of the Creator, or 
from the contemplation of the evidences of design 
in creation, without having awakened within him a 
single pleasurable thought of God's perfections. 
Such a person, however enjoyable his emotions 
may be, when he looks upon the beautiful external 



I ^ PR A Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

world, fails to see in the external world any mani- 
festation of his Creator's glory. 

To be convinced by the proofs, which imme- 
diately appear when nature is inspected, that the 
Creator exists, and that He possesses certain at- 
tributes—even to feel admiration whenever the eye 
rests on nature's lovely scenes — is not to see God's 
glory in His works ; but it is to see the manifesta- 
tions of the divine perfections in the wonders of 
earth which encircle us, accompanied with holy com- 
placency and delight in those perfections, as disclosed 
in these wonders. He discerns the glory of His 
Heavenly Father in the things which His hands 
have fashioned, who, having first seen and loved 
God's character and attributes, as they are revealed 
in the Scriptures, recognizes with sweet pleasure 
that same character and those same attributes in 
nature's works. 

The works of God, as soon as they begin to be 
contemplated, call into action the intellectual pow- 
ers and the aesthetic nature of men, and men 
cannot help deriving pleasure from the exercise of 
these, whatever may occasion their exercise. This, 
with the fact that men vary in their intellectual 
gifts, enables us to see why the pleasurable emo- 
tions of one who loves God may very possibly, 



PRA V FOR THE HOI V SPIRIT. j i 5 

when he beholds some beautiful work of his Maker, 
be less vivid than those experienced by an unbe- 
liever in looking at the same object ; why also one 
Christian may find keen enjoyment in reflecting on 
the evidences of design with which God's works 
abound, without being necessarily superior in piety 
to another Christian, to whom the discovery of the 
marks of design in nature affords no such pleasure. 
That which led the inspired writers to dwell 
* with such delight, and often at such length, on the 
marvels of earth, was not merely their fondness for 
earth's beauties and sublimities, such as is felt by 
all persons of taste, but it was their clear recogni- 
tion in these marvels of the holy attributes of God, 
that God concerning whom the words are uttered : 
" Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God 
Almighty." " Holy ! Holy ! Holy ! is the Lord of 
hosts : the whole earth is full of his glory." " The 
voice of the Lord is upon the waters : the God of 
glory thundereth : the Lord is upon many waters." 
" Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of 
his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and 
comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, 
and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills 
in a balance ? " " The heavens declare the glory 
of God : and the firmament sheweth his handi- 



I j6 PR a y for the hoi y spirit. 

work. 5 ' " Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did 
he in heaven and in earth, in the seas, and all deep 
places. He causeth the vapors to ascend from the 
ends of the earth ; he maketh the lightnings for the 
rain ; he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries. " 
" Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons and 
all deeps : fire and hail, snow and vapor : stormy 
wind fulfilling his word : mountains and all hills ; 
fruitful trees and all cedars : beasts and all cattle ; 
creeping things, and flying fowl." 

Believers who never accustom themselves to see 
God in His works, lose much happiness. Indeed, 
if the many who are chargeable with this neglect 
would cultivate the habit of which we are speaking, 
they would find it beneficial in many ways. No 
doubt some are grieved at their own remissness in 
this thing, and often wish that they could never 
walk abroad without being sweetly reminded of 
God — without being able to say, 

" If in the field I meet a smiling flower, 
Methinks it whispers, ' God created me ' V 

The habit can undoubtedly be formed, but not with- 
out the aid of the Holy Spirit. He is the only 
revealer of God's glory in the Scriptures, and He 
alone can enable us to recognize that glory in the 



PR A V FOR THE HOL V SPIRIT, \ \ 7 

Creator's works. Rely not, then, on your own un- 
assisted efforts. Be fervent and importunate in 
your entreaties for the teaching influences of the 
Holy Spirit, and He who giveth His choicest gifts 
to all those who ask, will grant your request, so 
that you will often find yourself examining with 
care the beautiful works of nature, for the sole pur- 
pose of delighting yourself with discoveries of the 
proofs of your glorious Creator's perfections. 

Indeed, there must already often have been times 
when, upon surveying the wonders with which all 
God's works abound, you have recognized with 
holy admiration the evidences afforded by these 
wonders of the glorious perfections of your Crea- 
tor. For this feeling of holy admiration you were 
entirely indebted to the Spirit of God, to whom, 
therefore, your gratitude should flow forth. 



XIV. 



THE MORE YOU PRIZE THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND 
THE MORE YOU PRAY FOR IT, ' THE BETTER WILL YOU 
HEED THE ADMONITION, "GRIEVE NOT THE HOLY SPIRIT 

of god: 1 

rjPHE influences of the Holy Spirit are in a greater 
or less degree granted to all men. This appears 
plain from those words in Genesis vi. 3, " My 
Spirit shall not always strive with man." The same 
thing is taught by the language which Isaiah uses 
with reference to the men of his generation, " They 
rebelled and vexed His Holy Spirit." And the mar- 
tyr Stephen tells the Jews, " Ye do always resist 
the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do }^e." 

Another source of evidence on this subject is fur- 
nished by experience and observation. Every 
Christian is conscious that long before his conver- 
sion he was many times the subject of influences 
awakening serious and anxious thoughts, leading 
him to see the emptiness of the world, convincing s 
him of sin, and tending to draw him to the Saviour. 
And what the believer remembers to have been his 

own experience when he was an impenitent sinner, 
(n8) 



PR A Y FOR THE II OL Y SPIRIT. 1 19 

is likewise the experience of those who are never 
truly converted. These also have serious thoughts 
which come and go in a way which to them is un- 
accountable, attended with many desires and yearn- 
ings of soul ; and they frequently, under the influ- 
ence of these feelings, endeavor in various ways to 
satisfy conscience, and appease an offended God. 

Such convictions and inward workings are due 
to the operation of the Spirit of God. It is His 
still small voice which men hear, inviting, warning, 
arguing, and expostulating, and seeking with infi- 
nite compassion to draw them from the paths of 
destruction. There is no one who is not at times 
the subject of the Spirit's common operations, when 
he is thus made to feel the power of the w ? orld to 
come. 

Whenever the blessed Spirit of God enlightens, 
or checks, or warns us (and it makes no difference 
whether at the time of our being the subjects of 
these operations we are Christians or not) ; when- 
ever He exhorts and allures us to that which is right 
and holy, this working of His cannot be distinguish- 
ed from our soul's own exercises. " We do not at 
first think of the presence of the Divine agency, 
owing to its working being in such perfect unison 
with our nature, and in such living harmony with 



120 PR A Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT, 

all our faculties. The thoughts that are awakened, 
the emotions that are stirred, the desires that are 
kindled, appear so thoroughly our own, so proper 
to us, so natural, that we do not at first attribute 
them to any other source than our own mental ac- 
tivity. We find these better views and feelings al- 
ready in place and asserting their power. They 
are the insignia of the Divine presence, and our 
treatment of them is a direct dealing with the Holy 
Spirit/' 

As the Spirit is always opposed by the unbeliev- 
ing, so, alas ! He is often grieved by Christians. 

How often when we see the path in which we 
ought to go, do we delay and even refuse compli- 
ance with what we justly suspect to be the inward 
motions, the silent urgings of this Divine Agent. 
Perhaps the particular thing in regard to which we 
are admonished is the duty of retiring at once for 
secret prayer. It would, however, be impossible to 
enumerate all the suggestions and promptings of the 
still small voice, to which, notwithstanding we are 
warned not to grieve the Spirit of God, we repeat- 
edly fail to give heed. Sins of this kind should 
make us truly penitent, and increased faithfulness to 
all Christian duties should evince our penitence and 
also our deep gratitude to our Sanctifier for His 



PR A Y FOR THE HOI Y SPIRIT. 1 2 1 

condescension and loving-kindness to us. " As the 
natural consequence of being long under the guid- 
ance of another is a quick perception of his mean- 
ing, so that we can meet his wishes before they are 
verbally expressed, something of this ready discern- 
ment, accompanied with instant compliance, may 
reasonably be expected from those who profess to 
be habitually led by the Spirit." 

How often is our temper and behavior the opposite 
of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, good- 
ness, faith, meekness, temperance ! if we are not guil- 
ty of giving utterance to corrupting language, yet 
how seldom is our conversation edifying, ministering 
grace unto the hearers ! How frequently are we 
guilty of bitterness of feeling, wrath, clamor, and 
evil-speaking ! How often do we forget to be kind 
one to another, to be tender-hearted, and to forgive 
one another ! To ask these questions is the same 
as to ask, How often do we grieve the blessed 
Spirit? For He is hurt, and He is offended when 
evil tempers and passions are indulged, and when 
we fail to cherish those holy dispositions which, al-^ 
though they owe their origin to Divine influence, 
and are called the fruits of the Spirit, are truly our 
own, and are to be cultivated by us with the great* 

est faithfulness and care. 
6 



122 PRA y FOR THE IIOL Y SPIRIT. 

How frequently do we utterly fail to practice 
moderation in indulging our appetites, often even 
eating to excess. But for Christians to defile their 
bodies by intemperance or impurity is sacrilege, 
because their bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost. 

How frequently do we neglect, disregard, and 
even disobey the inspired Word ! We have some 
love and reverence for it, or we would not be 
Christians at all, and yet it would be difficult to 
describe all the ways in wBich we dishonor it. 
How many are trie days in which our interest in 
the writings of worldly men far exceeds our de- 
light in the study of the Scriptures ! How igno- 
rant we are, in comparison with what we should be, 
of its truths ! How little are we affected by its 
promises, threatenings, and cautions ! How sadly 
we fail to exercise prompt, simple, and implicit 
faith in what the Bible says ! And how exceeding- 
ly do we fail to live according to its precepts and 
directions ! Now, when we thus treat the inspired 
Word, we grieve the Holy Spirit. For that Word 
is His Word — He is its author, and it bears a re- 
semblance to Him. It is divine, like Himself— 
it is a word of infinite majesty. And He is not 
only its author, but He will use no other instru- 
ment in carrying forward our sanctification. The 



PRAY FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT. i 2 $ 

blessed Spirit therefore regards us as treating Him 
just as we treat the Bible, which is the product of 
His own infinite wisdom, and which He so honors. 

How often do our lives belie, or falsely represent 
the Spirit's work in the heart ! The Scriptures 
teach that we are the temples of the Holy Ghost ; 
and if there is this relation between Him and us, it is, 

of course, through the medium of our conduct that 
His character and religion will be contemplated by 
men. If, then, there is a want of accordance between 
His holy nature and our walk and conversation — if 
while professing to be led and governed by Him 
we are worldly-minded — we misrepresent His nat- 
ure and work to those who are watching us, and 
exceedingly grieve Him. 

It is not, however, in these ways alone that we 
wound the blessed Sanctifier. Every sin that we 
commit is an offence against Him. This must be 
so because of the relations He sustains to us. Fie 
dwells in us as the source of our spiritual life. He 
has begun a glorious and blessed work within us. 
The true way, therefore, to obey the injunction not 
to displease Him, is to practice universal holiness. 

If this is so, we see the connection between our 
continually praying for the Holy Spirit, and our 
being kept from grieving Him, For if we are al- 



1 24 PRA Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

ways engaged in pleading with God to give us the 
Spirit, we shall certainly die unto sin and live unto 
righteousness. We shall be sure to exercise the 
graces He bestows- upon us, if they are bestowed 
upon us in answer to our perpetual and earnest sup- 
plications. Besides, we are far from grieving : we 
are greatly glorifying the blessed Spirit when we 
show that we deeply feel our dependence upon 
Him. And in what way can we better express our 
sense of such dependence, than by continually seek- 
ing His influences? Surely, then, we are right in 
saying, that the more you pray for the Spirit, the 
better you will heed the warning, " Grieve not the 
Holy Spirit of God." 

Ever remember, however, that it is by means of 
the assistance which the Holy Spirit Himself 
vouchsafes you, that you are enabled to avoid griev- 
ing Him. To Him, therefore, your gratitude is due 
whenever you are kept from falling into this sin. 



/ 



XV. 



EARNEST AND INCESSANT SUPPLICATIONS FOR THE HOLY 
SPIRIT WILL HAVE A HAPPY EFFECT ON THE MANNER 
IN WHICH YOU WILL ATTEND TO THE DUTY OF CLOSET 
PRA YER, 

TTTE cannot err in believing this, for there is no 



other act binding upon the Christian, in per- 
forming which the aid of the Spirit is so expressly 
promised. 

If, in accordance with your heart's desire, the 
Holy Spirit is given you to guide your exercises, 
you will not, indeed, neglect to offer supplications, 
with thanksgivings, for temporal mercies. Never- 
theless, in all your petitions, spiritual gifts will have 
the precedence. 

Spiritual gifts alone make us truly rich. We 
may have all that Solomon had, and yet, like him, 
be miserable ; but if we have received power to 
'exercise the Christian's faith, and love, and grati- 
tude, and humility, and submission, and hope, and 
patience, and forgiveness, and moderation, and 
courage, and zeal, and holy longings and desires, 




(125) 



1 26 PRA Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

we are in possession of good which infinitely out- 
weighs all that the world is able to bestow. 

These graces wrought into the soul bring it into 
fellowship with God. The believer who is thus 
enriched has a foretaste of heaven here, and knows 
that heavenly blessedness, in its perfection, will be 
his hereafter. 

Now, the prayers of each believer will be char- ' 
acterized by pleadings for these priceless blessings, 
if the Hoty Spirit is his prompter and teacher. 

The child of God often has a sense of his need 
of these spiritual gifts, which no words are able to 
describe. He is unable to say which of the graces 
of the Spirit he needs most. If he looks at his 
slowness to believe God's promises, it seems to him 
that there is nothing he is so much in want of as a 
stronger faith. If his attention is turned to his 
sadly defective love for Christ's people, it appears 
to him as if the grace of love to the brethren is 
that in which he is most deficient, and which he 
should seek more earnestly than any other grace. 
If he considers his want of lively sensibility to the 
condition of perishing souls, he is ready to say that 
love and pity for lost men is the feeling which re- 
quires to be strengthened more than any other. 
And so, whichever of his Christian graces he ex- 



PR A Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. \ 2 J 

amines, he finds that the one to which his attention 
is directed is so far from having the strength and 
activity which it ought to have, that he can hardly 
avoid concluding that in no other grace is he so weak. 

And the feebleness of his faith and love — the ex- 
ceeding imperfection of his gratitude, humility, peni- 
tence, zeal, and Christian boldness and faithfulness : 
all this is a matter of complaint to God in his daily 
prayers. " This part of prayer is most acceptable 
with God, and that wherein believers find ease and 
rest unto their souls. For, let the w r orld scoff while 
it pleaseth, what is more acceptable unto God than 
for His children, out of pure love unto Him and 
holiness ; out of fervent desires to comply with His 
mind and will, and thereby to attain conformity 
unto Jesus Christ ; to come with their complaints 
unto Him, of the distance they are kept from these 
things by the captivating power of sin. ... I say 
these complaints of sin, poured out before the Lord, 
are acceptable to God, and prevalent with Him to 
give out aid and assistance. He owns believers as 
His children, and hath the bowels and compassion 
of a Father towards them. Will He, then, despise 
their complaints and their bemoaning of themselves 
before Him ? " * 

* Owen on the " Holy Spirit," Vol. III., pp. 558, 559 ; Goold's 
edition. 



128 PR A Y FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

In regard to the manner in which ) t ou will attend 
to the duty of closet prayer, we think we are safe 
in saying that you will certainly, if you are led 
and controlled by the Spirit, form the habit of ob- 
serving, during all your Christian life, stated times 
for that employment. It is true, that whenever we 
speak to God affectionately and reverently, in soli- 
tude or in company, we pray; but though such 
converse with God as this ought always to be 
maintained, yet it is not all that is required. It is 
the dut}^ of every believer carefully and strictly to 
observe regular seasons of devotion ; and because it 
is his duty, he certainly will do it, if he follows the 
directions of the Bible and the promptings of the 
Holy Spirit. " When thou prayest, enter into thy 
closet ; and when thou hast shut th}^ door, pray to 
thy Father which is in secret ; and thy Father 
which seeth in secret will reward thee openly. " 

It may be admitted that there are some whose 
employments are of such a nature that they find it 
difficult to be much alone, and especially to observe 
stated seasons of communion with Jesus. Such 
should cry to God earnestly and perseveringly to 
help them to overcome their difficulties, and they 
will not cry in vain. They will find that somehow 
in the providence of God they begin to have fre- 
quent opportunities for retirement. 



PR A Y FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT. i 2 g 

With most persons, it is not so much the pressure 
of business and duties which keeps them from regu- 
larity in habits of devotion, as it is spiritual sloth. 
It is important to take time by the forelock, and 
neither business, company, nor indolence should 
hinder us from doing so. How often do professing 
Christians find that the day has passed away and 
closed upon them without their fulfilling the inten- 
tions formed when they rose, of praying in their 
closets. The reason is because thej' have no fixed 
regular times set apart for the purpose. 

It is not the will of God that His own dear chil- 
dren should be so overwhelmed with anxieties and 
labors as to be cut off from opportunities of profit- 
able worship, and of frequent and calm communion 
with Himself. If any find themselves so situated, 
is it not probable that they have been gradually 
brought into such an unhappy position through 
their own fault? May it not be owing to some mis- 
management that cares have so accumulated as to 
hinder devotion? Many, especially among those 
•who have been brought to love the Saviour, and to 
delight in His service in the morning of their days, 
have never found it necessary to be hurried and 
brief in their prayers, because they have resolutely 

made everything bend to this all-important matter. 
6* 



1 30 PR A Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

It has always, and justly, appeared to them that this 
is the great work, in comparison with which, other 
occupations are almost trifling. Converts ought 
to be particularly urged to take pains to begin such 
habits, and to be strictly regular and punctual in 
point of time. 

Many of the very busiest of God's servants have 
pra}^ed much. None have ever exceeded Paul, or 
Luther, or Knox, in labors, and yet how they 
prayed ! A multitude of passages might easily be 
collected from Paul's epistles, which show that 
much of his time was given to supplication. Our 
blessed Saviour was ever to be found in the busiest 
haunts of men, and perhaps He was always weary, 
and yet He often retired to hold converse with 
God, and not unfrequently spent whole nights in 
prayer. 

The men who have prospered best, and accom- 
plished most during their lives, have taken time to 
commune with God. Let us imitate their example, 
even though we find that prayer, deliberately at- 
tended to every day, delays for a little the business 
of the day. " You have read of that hero who, when 
an overwhelming force was in full pursuit, and all 
his followers were urging him to more rapid flight, 
coolly dismounted, in order to repair a flaw in his 



PR A Y FOR THE II OL Y SPIRIT. i 3 1 

horse's harness. Whilst busied with the broken 
buckle, the distant cloud swept down in nearer 
thunder ; but, just as the prancing hoofs and eager 
spears were ready to dash clow^n on him, the flaw 
was mended, the clasp was fastened, the steed was 
mounted, and, like a swooping falcon, he had 
vanished from their view. The timely delay sent 
him in safety back to his huzzaing companions. 
There is in life the same luckless precipitancy and 
the same profitable delay." 

It is not necessary to remind you that it is only 
when supplications are offered with faith and im- 
portunity and in the name of Jesus, that they have 
power with God, and that the stronger our faith 
and the greater our importunity, the more signal 
and abundant will be the answers to our petitions. 
To ask with faith for mercy, and for grace to help 
in time of need, is not easy ; it requires boldness, 
since conscious guilt makes us afraid. Therefore, 
we are commanded to draw nigh with boldness. 
" Let us," says the Apostle, " come boldly to the 
throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and 
find grace to help in time of need." 

But to ask with importunity is just as necessary 
as to ask with faith. It is not only natural that we 
should be importunate in seeking what we long for 



132 PRA Y FOR THE HOL V SPIRIT. 

with overmastering longings, but it is the will of 
God that we should be importunate. He even 
withholds the blessing for a time, on purpose to in- 
crease our earnestness. He did so in the case of 
the Syrophenician woman. 

If we are importunate, we shall not only come to 
God often for what we need, but we shall some- 
times continue long in prayer. It is not that power 
of concentration which is the result of education, 
which enables a person to pray a great while at a 
time It is simply that energy of will which be- 
longs to any one who is fully determined to succeed 
in his suit, who is all alive to the infinite importance 
to himself and to the Church of the blessings which 
he is seeking from God. "If I perish, I perish," 
said Esther, and the fixed resolution seen in these 
words was that which also possessed Jacob's soul, 
when he wrestled with the Angel of the Covenant 
to the breaking of the day. 

We never have much success in the affairs of this 
world, unless we apply ourselves to what our hands 
find to do with pains, energy, and inflexible deter- 
mination ; nor can we have much success in prayer, 
unless we engage in it with the same resolute spirit. 
This resolution and vigor of will in prayer, we shall 
surely possess if we have the powerful inworking 



PR A Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 133 

of the Holy Spirit. In the things of God, grace abun- 
dantly bestowed can make any man active and energetic. 
It has aroused multitudes to call upon God with 
great vehemence of desire and unyielding impor- 
tunit}^. 

One reason wiry we may expect the assistance of 
the Holy Spirit in prayer is, because God has ap- 
pointed prayer to be a means of grace, and of 
securing our salvation. 

Another reason is, that prayer has been divinely 
appointed as one of the ways by which to obtain 
the things we need. We need strength to perform 
duties and to endure afflictions, and we also have 
special wants which none but God knows, and 
which we never could disclose to any mortal. 

It is not merely since the gospel dispensation 
began, that the Holy Spirit has assisted believers to 
pray. He was bestowed as a Spirit of grace and 
supplication upon Abraham, and Jacob, and Moses, 
and Hannah, and likewise upon Samuel, and Elijah, 
and David, and Ezra, and Nehemiah, and Daniel. 

We feel that we know not what to pray for as we 
ought, but our hearts are encouraged by the assur- 
ance that the Holy Spirit is our Paraclete, or advo- 
cate — that we have His agency joined to ours in 
our holy exercises. Left to ourselves, we cannot 



134 PRA Y F0R THE II0LY SPIRIT, 

plead our own cause, but He dictates to us what 
we ought to say. " The Spirit also helpeth our 
infirmities ; for we know net what we should pray 
for as we ought : but the Spirit itself maketh inter- 
cession for us w T ith groanings which cannot be ut- 
tered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth 
what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh 
intercession for the saints according to the will of 
God." 

Can anything be plainer than that our hearts 
should overflow with gratitude to the Holy Spirit 
for whatever power we may have to pray ? 



XVI. 



PRA Y MUCH THA T YOU MA Y BE UNDER THE GOVERNMENT OF 
THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND YOUR INFLUENCE, UNCONSCIOUSLY 
TO YOURSELF, WILL BE POWERFUL FOR GOOD, AND THAT 
DAILY. 

rpHE Bible has much to say on the subject of 



doing good to others. Its exhortations to labor 
for the welfare of men, and its promises and en- 
couragements addressed to those who thus exert 
themselves, are many. " Trust in the Lord and do 
good." " Let us not be weary in well doing; for 
in due season we shall reap if we faint not." " Love 
your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good 
to them that hate you, and pray for them which 
despitefully use you and persecute you." " Blessed 
is he that considereth the poor; the Lord will de- 
liver him in time of trouble." u Inasmuch as ye 
have done it unto one of the least of these my 
brethren, ye have done it unto me." " Whoso hath 
this world's good and seeth his brother have need, 
and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, 
how dwelleth the love of God in him ?" " Pure re- 




(135) 



I c?6 P£4 y FOR THE HOT Y SPIRIT. 

ligion and undefilcd before God and the Father is 
this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their 
affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the 
world." 

But besides their voluntary labors and active 
efforts to benefit others, those in whom the Holy 
Spirit dwells are always exerting a heavenly influ- 
ence of which they themselves are altogether 
unconscious. 

This unconscious involuntary influence is entire- 
ly due to their inward character. It follows their 
character as the shadow follows the sun. "As 
every bad man has a fund of poison in his charac- 
ter which is tainting those around him when it is 
not in his thoughts to do them an injury, so every 
good man has a power in his person more mighty 
than his words and arguments, and which others 
feel when he least suspects it." Our Saviour says 
to His people, " Ye are the light of the world." 
They shine, then, not because this is their purpose, 
but because they are luminous. 

Not only does this kind of influence flow imme- 
diately from the Christian's inward character, but 
it is in exact proportion to its excellence. The 
better his heart is, the more good will he uncon- 
sciously do, from which it follows that his uncon- 



PR A Y FOR THE II OL Y SPIRIT, j 37 

scious power to benefit others is at least under his 
indirect control, since he can increase it by faithful- 
ly using the means which, when faithfully used, 
will secure his spiritual growth, and increase his 
excellence of character. 

And what means can be thought of which will so 
certainly result in this growth and advancement, 
like praying earnestly and unceasingly for the 
Holy Spirit? Have not the effects of such entreat- 
ies upon the life and character of the supplicant 
been shown to be blessed ? Has it not been shown 
that the way to be enriched with all the graces of 
the Spirit is to pray for Him ? That this also is the 
way to know more of Christ, to find sweetness in 
serving Him, to have Christ living in the soul, to 
obtain the power of looking at unseen things, and of 
walking by faith ? That this is the way, likewise, to 
grow uninterruptedly in grace, to retain at all times 
a spirit of prayer, to enjoy a sense of Christ's love 
and sweet friendship with the blessed Spirit Him- 
self? Has it not, then, been convincingly shown 
that he who abounds in prayer for the Spirit, is 
sure to grow more and more like God in disposi- 
tion and character? If, then, increasing in uncon- 
scious influence for good, must be the certain result 
of advancing in holiness of character— of increasing 



138 P # A Y FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

in Christian worth and loveliness — were we not right 
in saying that if you pray much for the blessed 
Spirit, } r our influence, unconsciously to yourself, 
will be daily powerful for good? You can never 
trace this, your unconscious influence, partly 
because it is noiseless, which fact, indeed, makes 
it all the surer and stronger, though it may 
cause it to be underrated ; partly because it is im- 
possible for you to be in contact with any person 
without his receiving an impression from it ; and part- 
ly because through your associates it will be trans- 
mitted to still others whom you will never see. 

The young especially feel this undesigned, mys- 
terious power which flows out from our lives. Into 
them we especially work our own character. It 
has been asserted as a probable thing, that in all the 
voluntary, active, intended influence of our whole 
lives, we do less to shape the destiny of our fellow- 
men, than in the single article of unconscious influ- 
ence over children. " They watch us every mo- 
ment, in the family, before the hearth, and at the 
table ; and when we are meaning them no good or 
evil, they are drawing from us impressions and 
moulds of habit, which, if wrong, no heavenly dis- 
cipline will ever wholly remove ; or if right, no bad 
associations utterly dissipate. And thus we have a 



PR A Y FOR THE IIOL V SPIRIT. i 39 

whole generation of future men receiving from us 
their very beginnings, and the deepest impulses of 
life and immortality." 

How evident it is from the considerations above 
presented, that we should be as much grateful to 
the Holy Spirit for the unconscious influence for 
good which we may exert, as for that holiness of 
character to which we may have attained. 



XVII. 



IN ADDITION TO THE REASONS ALREADY URGED FOR SPEND- 
ING MUCH TIME IN PRAYER FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT, YOU 
HA VE THE WELL-KNOWN WORDS OF OUR BLESSED SA VIOUR, 
RECORDED IN MA TT. VII, AND LUKE XI. 

TN both these passages our Saviour gives a direc- 



tion, and accompanies it with an encouraging 
assurance. 

The direction is to ask for the Holy Spirit. 

The unspeakable gift — the gift of Christ, God's 
own Son — would be of no value to us without the 
gift of the Holy Spirit. What a comfort, then, it is 
to those who greatly covet this benefit, to know that 
to obtain it, they have simply to ask for it. It is 
not every kind of asking, however, that deserves 
the name. We must ask sincerely. 

The indispensableness of sincerity is so evident, 
that it would not be mentioned as a requisite, were 
it not that we are all familiar with the fact that men 
daily pray for divine blessings in the most formal 
manner, and utter words before God in which their 
hearts do not join. I would caution }^ou against 




(140) 



PRA Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 141 

falling into this habit. We are all in danger of it. 
Are }'ou accustomed, in all your approaches to the 
throne of grace, to offer up a request for the in- 
fluences of the Spirit? This is well. It is at all 
times suitable to petition God for His Holy Spirit. 
But are you sure that you really desire what you 
• profess to seek ? 

Suppose, when listening to the request of another 
for some favor, you felt convinced that there was 
no sincerity in his request — that he had no desire 
for the favor he was asking for — could you help 
regarding his conduct with indignation ? What, 
then, is to be thought of us, when, at the very time 
we are entreating God to' bestow upon us this 
priceless gift, we have no real wish for it ? 

If you are conscious that there is great defect in 
your desires for spiritual blessings, and if you 
grieve over it, remember how dependent we poor 
sinners are on God for our very desires for things 
of a holy nature. Confess this dependence, humble 
yourselves before God, and pray that He would 
not only grant you that which your souls, above 
all things, need, but that He would also impart to 
you suitable desires for such good. 

But sincerity, though necessary, is not sufficient. 
The direction of our Saviour to ask, is prefaced by 



142 PRA Y F0R THE &OLY SPIRIT. 

a parable, designed to teach us the importance of 
urging our suit with importunity. We are taught 
by His parable that, even in our dealings with 
selfish men, we are likely to be successful, if we are 
only importunate. How much more successful, 
then, may we expect persevering application to be, 
when He to w T hom we go is the merciful God ?. 
Men are displeased with importunity, and yet they 
are not often proof against it. But our Father in 
heaven is pleased with it — the importunate ones 
are His favored ones. Surely, if any believer is 
not rich in spiritual things, it is because of his want 
of importunity. 

Another requisite to successful prayer for the 
Holy Spirit, is faith. We must believe that, in 
answer to our petition, God certainly will give His 
Spirit. But why must we believe this ? Why 
would it be wrong to doubt it? Simply, because 
our Heavenly Father has graciously bound Him- 
self by promise to bestow this blessing upon all 
who truly ask. That which our faith should lay hold 
of is God's express promise. 

Even when we offer supplications for temporal 
benefits, our supplications will not be useless, but 
will be sure to meet with some answer. Still, the 
divine promise to grant temporal benefits to seek- 



PR A Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. ^3 

ers is conditional. To bestow upon the supplicant 
the precise thing prayed for might injure him, and, 
therefore, instead of what is expressly petitioned 
for, some equivalent may be given. But the 
promise to give the Holy Spirit is not conditional, 
so that we see the exact thing to be believed. It 
is that the Spirit of God Himself— even He Him- 
self, the divine Quickener, Sanctifier, and Com- 
forter — will be given us, if we ask for Him. 

But, again : we do not ask aright, unless we ask 
in the name of Christ. We must plead that the 
blessing may be granted us for Christ's sake. We 
must abhor the thought of relying on our own merits 
— we must not even trust simply to God's mercy — 
but we must rely on God's regard for Christ as the 
ground on which we expect to be listened to. 
What Jesus is, and what He has done, that we 
should urge as the reason for our being heard. 

But what is the encouraging assurance with 
which our Lord accompanies His direction ? What 
does He say as to the power which prayer for the 
Spirit's influence has ? 

Why, in the first place, He says: "Ask, and it 
shall be given you ; seek, and you shall find ; 
knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Here is 
a promise three times repeated. Is not that em- 



144 FRA y F0R THE H0LY SPIRIT. 

phatic ? Could we desire anything more t Our 
blessed Saviour, however, knowing how slow we 
are to believe, would be still more emphatic, and, 
therefore, He acids : " For every one that asketh, 
receiveth ; and he that seeketh, findeth ; and to him 
that knocketh, it shall be opened." The assurance 
is repeated here in terms still stronger, and that as 
a fact of actual experience, for the words, you ob- 
serve, are changed from " shall be given you," 
"shall find/' to "receipetk" " findeth" 

But our Lord, considering our weakness and 
patiently bearing with our unholy distrust, conde- 
scends, besides giving us these explicit assurances, to 
reason with us in these remarkable words : " If a 
son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, 
will he give him a stone ? Or, if he ask a fish, will 
he for a fish give him a serpent ? Or, if he shall 
ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion ? If ye, 
then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto 
your children : how much more shall your Heaven- 
ly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask 
him ! " 

Here is a formal argument, which the Divine 
Saviour, in His amazing condescension, employs : 
" If ye, mere men, and not only mere men, but 
fallen, sinful men, know how to give the good gifts 



PR A Y FOR THE HGL V SPIRIT, 145 

of this life to your children, how infinitely more 
shall your Heavenly Father's parental love con- 
strain him to give the Holy Spirit to his spiritual 
offspring who ask him ? " 

You perceive that the force of our Lord's reason- 
ing lies in these two facts which His words imply. 
The first is, that God has the same kind of feeling 
towards the poor in spirit, who cry to Him, that 
parents have for their children. Do you doubt 
this ? The Scriptures plainly teach it. Long be- 
fore our Lord came into the world, David, who 
wrote by inspiration, declared : "As a father pitieth 
his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear 
him." Parents, then, may understand what God's 
feelings are from their own. 

The other fact which is implied is, that our 
Heavenly Father is infinitely free from those evils 
and dreadful imperfections which belong to all 
earthly parents, and which prevent them from 
being good parents. For we are often sinfully 
impatient with our children, and besides, are ex- 
ceedingly ignorant as to what will really be for 
their good. Our Father in heaven, on the contrary, 
is absolutely without limit as to His knowledge of 
our wants and His ability to supply them, while 
7 



I4 6 P£A y FOR THE HOI Y SPIRIT. 

His parental tenderness is infinitely perfect and 
unmixed with evil. 

When it is considered that we well know that 
prayer offered for the Holy Spirit always prevails, 
is it not astonishing that we spend such little 
time in praying for Him ? Can even the busiest 
Christians consistently plead the multiplicity 
of their earthly labors as an excuse for being so 
little alone with God for this purpose ? Do we • 
know of anything which lays us under such a debt 
of gratitude as the standing offer to give us the 
Holy Spirit when we pray? 

And, if we should always be exercised with grati- 
tude to our Heavenly Father for this His standing 
offer, should not lively gratitude to the Blessed 
Spirit also fill our hearts, who, with love equal to 
that of the Father and the Son, condescends to the 
watch and care and conduct of such vile worms as 
we? 



PART II. 



»t mxtei mm for M$ Mlm mxll 



I. 

THEY ARE VERY PRECIOUS TO GOD WHO LOVE AND ERA Y FOR 
THE CHURCH, WHICH IS THE LAMB'S BRIDE. CEASE NOT, 
THEREFORE, TO ENTREA T THE HOLY SPIRIT CONSTANTLY 
TO ABIDE WITH AND PROSPER HER. 

Pjj^HE exceeding great and precious promises 
made to the Church may seem to you to 
render it unnecessary to be continually engaged in 
offering up supplications in her behalf. By these 
promises her continuance until the second coming 
of Christ is already secured. Our Lord said : " Lo, 
I am with you always, even unto the end of the 
world. ,, And He promised that the gates of hell 
should not prevail against His Church. Christ as- 
sures His beloved Church that she shall be sancti- 
fied and cleansed with the washing of water by the 
Word, and presented to Himself a glorious Church, 
not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. 

But, while these assurances of the Saviour, with 
similar predictions contained in the Old Testament, 
do, indeed, show that the Church will continue till 
the end of all things, they also declare, impliedly, 

(149) 



1 50 PR A Y FOR THE HOI Y SPIRIT. 

that there will always he some to pray for her. 
They do not prove that her perpetuity and final 
triumph are certain, whether her members pray for 
her or not. Least of all do they prove that your 
intercessions would be of no benefit to her. Be- 
sides, there are other blessings to seek for the 
Church besides her preservation and final victory, 
though these do, indeed, involve much. 

Consider how it has been with her in the past. 
During all her history, she has been pressed down 
with many burdens. Satan's hosts have been ar- 
rayed against her, and, for the sake of more effectual 
opposition, have been organized by him into a king- 
dom. The fires of persecution have been kindled 
to consume her. She has been tried by the world's 
blandishments and seductions, and to these tempta- 
tions of the world great force has been given by the 
corruptions and imperfections of her members — 
sincere and true members who have really belonged 
to her. She has been weakened by the poison of 
errors. She has been paralyzed by internal strifes 
and dissensions. She has been burdened by having 
in her very midst unconverted and wicked profes- 
sors. What she has suffered, even from her own 
unfaithfulness, has continually called forth the com- 
passion of her Saviour and her King, notwithstand- 



PR A Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 1 5 1 

ing that she has, on account of her sins, incurred 
the displeasure of her faithful Redeemer, and has 
often been visited with chastisement. 

This is not only a description of her past history ; 
her sins continue to prevail. Unbelief, ignorance, 
and error still exist in her midst, and still hinder her 
advancement. And these of themselves have been 
sufficient to create many of the difficulties which 
stand in the way of her fully accomplishing the 
work which the Saviour has given her to do — diffi- 
culties so appalling that it requires strong faith even 
to think of them without being overwhelmed. 

If the condition of our beloved Zion weighs upon 
our hearts and awakens deep anxiety, let us have 
faith in the willingness and ability of the Holy 
Spirit to work effectually in her behalf — to en- 
lighten and purify her, and to fill her with a life 
and vigor unspeakably greater than she has ever 
known. Let us show that we have this faith by 
giving Him no rest till He establish her and make 
her a praise in the earth. Let us unceasingly ask 
not only that there may be conversions every day 
among the multitude of unrenewed professors, 
which would of itself greatly add to the Church's 
strength, but that all her living members may ex- 
ceedingly grow in faith and holiness. 



1 5 2 P£A Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

The truth is, there is a similarity between the 
condition of the Church of Christ and that of the 
individual believer. The believer is in some degree 
holy, but he is likewise sinful. He possesses spirit- 
ual life, but the increase, the continued existence 
even, of that life depends upon its being cherished, 
and guarded, and fed. He holds the truth, but the 
corruptions of his heart have an affinity with error ; 
and owing: to the weakness of his intellectual and 
moral nature, which sin has caused, he is easily 
deceived. The world wishes him to live as 
it lives, and leaves neither flattery nor specious 
argument untried to bring about his conformity to 
its own principles, maxims, and practices. He is 
continually watched, and tempted where he is weak- 
est, by Satan and the hosts of fallen spirits. These 
are very numerous, and they never relinquish their 
efforts even for a single moment to do him injury. 
He would fall an easy prey to their wiles and pow- 
er, but for the protection of the Captain of our 
salvation, who came to destroy the works of the 
devil. It is because all believers, while in the body, 
are in this condition, that they should love, pity, 
watch over, warn, and pray for each other. 

But this is also descriptive of the state of the 
Church on earth. What is true of each disciple of 



PR A V FOR THE IIOL V SPIRIT. \ 5 3 

Christ, is true of the entire body, which we call the 
Communion of Saints. The Church, likewise, is 
holy ; and yet is full of imperfections and sins. 
The light with which she shines is, indeed, from 
heaven, but it cannot grow 7 brighter ; it must even 
die out, if it is neglected. She is ever in clanger 
of imbibing the hurtful errors which so constantly 
arise, and they are often, indeed, embraced by her 
with dreadful tenacity. In seeking to bring her 
into conformity with itself, the world has every ad- 
vantage, owing to the corruptions which cleave to 
her, and to the weakness of her faith in things 
which are unseen and spiritual. Then, as in the 
case of the Christian, Satan is her watchful enemy, 
and is unceasingly, with all the strength of his 
whole kingdom of darkness, working for her de- 
struction. Is there any duty more solemnly bind- 
ing upon God's people than that of wrestling with 
God daily in behalf of Zion ? 

As the Holy Spirit is the author of all the graces 
of the individual believer, He likewise with His 
graces enriches the whole Church. And it is only 
as Fie dwells in her and works mightily in her, that 
she can increase in holiness. It is because Jehovah 
Jesus dwells in her by His Spirit that she is called 
the Temple of God. But as some saints receive 



i 54. PRA V FOR THE IIOL Y SPIRIT. 

the gift of the Spirit in larger measure than others, 
because they- pray more for the gift, so the Church 
is more filled with the Divine Spirit at one time 
than at others. It depends on the faithfulness and 
earnestness with which He is sought for the Church 
by God's people, how largely she enjoys His in- 
fluences. The condition on which God promises to 
revive, purify, beautify, increase, and strengthen 
Zion is, that her children pray for her. 

The increase of the faith and holiness of each 
believer now in the world would, of course, result 
in great good to the whole Church, for the Church 
is nothing else but the body of believers collective- 
ly considered. Pray, then, for all believers living 
in the world — for all and each of them. 

Professor Phelps, in his little book, entitled " The 
Still Hour," says that we lose many prayers for the 
lack of what he calls " specificness of object." But 
is there any want of specificness of object in your 
request when you entreat your Heavenly Father 
to bestow upon every saint, upon every soul beloved 
by Him, those spiritual blessings which He sees to 
be most needed ? Can you not define to your own 
mind the exact thing you petition for, when you 
offer this^request ? 

Such a request is not vague, neither is it absurd 



PR A Y FOR THE 11 OL Y SPIRIT. i 5 5 

or unreasonable on account of the number of be- 
lievers being so great. If there were only a hun- 
dred Christians alive, you would see nothing un- 
reasonable in your expecting God to give His 
Holy Spirit to every one of the entire number, just 
because you asked Him to do it. Why should the 
fact that there are millions of them on earth, instead 
of only a hundred, deter you from seeking spiritual 
gifts for each one ? 

Begin this day to offer the supplication, and per- 
severe in offering it during the remainder of your 
life — the supplication that (great as the number is) 
all your brethren in the world— all, without a single 
exception, may be enriched with spiritual gifts, and 
may constantly grow in grace. 

God's people are of all denominations of Chris- 
tians. Some are vigorous Christians, mighty be- 
lievers, while others are weak in faith. Some are 
honored and conspicuous in the Church ; others 
are obscure, hidden, and without honor. Then, 
there are the rich and the poor, the wise and the 
ignorant, the aged and the young. But however 
widely they may differ from each other in some 
things, they are all alike partakers of the fruits of 
the Holy Spirit. They sustain the same relations 
to Christ. They are His own, and they shall never 



1 56 PRA Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

perish. " They were in His heart during the sor- 
rows of the garden and agonies of the cross, with a 
knowledge of each individual and all his numerous 
wants, as clear and distinct as if that individual was 
the only object of His attention." He intercedes 
for them all, and will soon receive them to Him- 
self, where they shall be with Him forever and be- 
hold His glory. Pray, then, for all your fellow- 
members that are in the world. In your daily 
supplications, entreat your Heavenly Father to be- 
stow His Spirit upon each one, that each may 
glorify God by bearing much fruit. 

Multitudes of your fellow-saints are deeply af- 
flicted. Do not forget the burdened and the sor- 
rowful ones. You know that it is impossible to 
be mistaken in taking it for granted that there are 
many such, and they can be relieved by your 
prayers, though you will never know until you 
reach heaven who they are whom you have thus 
assisted. " It is for want of our prayers that men 
lie so long . under their burdens. If we would com- 
mend them unto God, He would either deliver 
them, or, what is the same, He would sanctify and 
sweeten the affliction, and make it as great a bless- 
ing as a deliverance. If you can do nothing else, 
pray for your brethren. You may not have other 



PR A Y FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT. i*y 

means of helping- them ; but the poorest Christian 
has an interest with God, and if he use it in prayer, 
it will do his brethren and himself a real service ; 
for prayer, in this case, for others, is a clearer evi- 
dence of grace than prayer for ourselves. 55 



II. 



AS THE WORLD CONTAINS MANY MILLIONS OF UNCONVERTED 
PERSONS WHO YET KNOW ENOUGH TO BE SAVED, WE 
SHOULD PR A Y THA T THE HOLY SPIRIT WOULD APPLY THIS 
TRUTH ALREADY LODGED IN THEIR MINDS TO THEIR CON- 
VERSION. 

OD says (Hosea iv. 6) : " My people are de- 



stroyed for lack of knowledge ; " and we are 
accustomed to use the same language with refer- 
ence to the heathen, who form by far the larger 
part of the world's population. But not the 
heathen alone are perishing through ignorance. 
There are multitudes in the most enlightened 
regions of the earth who must be lost unless they 
obtain more instruction than they now possess. 
Of the many in various Christian lands who are 
unable to read, a large proportion, it is to be 
feared, know not the way of salvation, and prob- 
ably a large proportion also of the numerous 
minds devoted to intellectual pursuits are, on this 
subject, equally in the dark. 

Still, there are living in the enlightened countries 




(158) 



TRA Y FOR THE HOI Y SPIRIT. i 59 

of the world millions of unrenewed souls, who 
are sufficiently informed concerning Christ and 
His redemption to be saved. They consist of sev- 
eral classes. Some of them have been under Chris- 
tian training from their infancy, and keep up their 
„ habit of frequenting the house of God, while others 
have ceased to honor the Sabbath, have lost in a 
great degree their susceptibility to religious im- 
pressions, and are daily becoming more hardened. 
Some are people of intelligence and refinement, 
while others are entire]}- destitute of mental cul- 
ture. Great familiarity with the doctrines of 
Christianity is possessed by some, while a very 
limited amount of Scripture knowledge has been 
attained by others. These various classes, how- 
ever, agree in this : that they all have sufficient 
knowledge of divine truth to render the loss of 
salvation unnecessary. They have all learned that 
men, without exception, are sinners, that death is 
the wages of sin, and that the way to escape death 
is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. 

These unregenerate millions who have, at least, 
this amount of light, are not all confined to this 
land. They also mingle with God's people in the 
nominally Christian nations of Europe, greatly out- 
numbering them there, as they exceedingly out- 



l6o PRA Y FOR THE II OL Y SPIRIT. 

number true believers among us. They are to be 
found likewise in the other quarters of the globe. 
They are to be found in heathen lands. A beloved 
missionary in Canton, in one of his letters to our 
churches, used lately the following language : 
" There are tens of thousands in this great city and 
the surrounding country who know sufficiently of 
the truth to be saved, if it were only savingly ap- 
plied to their hearts by the Holy Spirit. This," 
he goes on to say, " is given in answer to believing 
prayer.'' 

The multitude of that class of men in our world 
of whom we speak would all be converted and 
saved without our prayers, if the mere truth with- 
out the attending influence of the Spirit always 
availed to change the heart. But the truth in 
itself is inoperative ; for men, by nature, being 
spiritually dead, are unable to receive or know the 
things of the Spirit. They must be changed by 
the supernatural, almighty operation of the Spirit 
of God. Then the truth formerly proclaimed to 
them, and still remembered, produces its effect. It 
bears fruit, and their repentance and faith call forth 
the joy of the angels in heaven. 

If we believe that God is willing to hear prayer 
for the perishing, are we not exceedingly guilty in 



PR A Y FOR THE II OL Y SPIRIT. x6l 

His sight if we refuse to pray for the dying multi- 
tudes who already know enough to be saved ? We 
have this thought to encourage us : that it is not 
absolutely necessary that any more truth should be 
communicated to them than they now know. The 
Holy Spirit is infinitely able to apply to their sal- 
vation the truth which has in times past obtained 
a lodgment within their minds. It is not even nec- 
essary that they should be gathered into meetings. 
Indeed, in the case of most of them, this would be 
impossible. Wherever they are, and whatever 
may be their outward circumstances, if they know 
that Christ died for sinners, that the Son of Man 
came to seek and to save that which was lost, then 
they need nothing more than that the Holy Spirit 
should at once, by His infinite powxr, make use of 
this their knowledge to translate them into the 
kingdom of God's dear Son. 

Think of what a glorious thing it w r ould be, 
should the millions who already have sufficient 
light, be convinced of their lost condition, and be 
brought by the Holy Spirit to embrace Christ L 
What an immense accession of numbers and of 
power would the Church receive ! These millions 
have been called external!}^. The outward call of 
the Gospel has been addressed to them, because 



1 62 PRA Y FOR THE II OL V SPIRIT. 

they have obtained sufficient knowledge of the 
way of salvation to escape eternal death, if they 
would only act up to what they know. Salvation 
has been offered to them, and they know that they 
commit great sin in rejecting the offer. They know 
who it is who saj 7 s : " Look unto me, and be ye 
saved, all ye ends of the earth." Even though 
there is much in the Gospel which they could not 
explain, they nevertheless well understand that 
they are required to have repentance toward God, 
and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. They have 
learned that God is not willing that any should 
perish — that all are invited to take of the Water of 
Life freely. O, let us entreat the Holy Spirit not 
to give them up, but to continue to strive with 
them, and even to make them willing in the day of 
His power. 

Let us remember that God has, in all time past, 
heard the secret prayers of His people for souls 
unrenewed, though outwardly enlightened. Year 
after year, and sometimes in large numbers, have 
they been brought into the kingdom of Christ by 
the instrumentality of the truth applied in answer 
to the importunate prayers of obscure believers, 
by the Holy Spirit. And this work continues to 



PR A Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 163 

go on in our own day* Multitudes at a time are 
converted. 

The Holy Spirit is infinitely able to apply the 
truth, as fast as it is received, to the conversion of 
those who hear it ; and this we may humbly be- 
lieve He would do, should all the people of God 
so long for the salvation of every one brought 
under its influence, as to wrestle in prayer continu- 
ally for the uninterrupted outpouring upon them 
of the Holy Spirit. The two facts which we should 
lay well to heart are these : first, that there are 
many millions in the world who already know 
enough to be saved, if the truth lodged in their 
minds were only applied by the Spirit. And, sec- 
ondly, that the Blessed Spirit is infinitely able to 
apply that truth to their salvation. Let incessant 
prayer be offered that He would put forth His 
power. 



III. 



AS CHRIST HAS EXPRESSLY COMMANDED THE CHURCH TO 
ESTABLISH HIS GOSPEL IN EVERY LAND UNDER HEAVEN, 
YOU SHOULD PRAY THAT THE HOLY SPIRT WOULD EN- 
ABLE HER FAITHFULLY TO PERFORM THIS GREA T WORK. 



UR Lord ascended from the Mount of Olives 



on the fortieth day after His resurrection, in 
the presence of His apostles. As they had but 
just asked Him whether He was then about to 
restore the kingdom to Israel, it is evident that 
the)' had no expectation of such a thing as His 
departure from the world. On a previous occasion 
He had been seen on a mountain in Galilee by 
above five hundred of His disciples, who, when 
they saw Him, worshiped Him ; and it was on 
that mountain, and to those worshiping disciples, 
that He addressed the command : " Go ye, there- 
fore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing 
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to observe 
ail things whatsoever I have commanded you ; and 
lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the 




(164) 



PR A Y FOR THE VOL Y SPIRIT. 165 

world." Here we have the commission which our 
Lord gave to His Church. She is commanded to 
disciple all nations. 

This command was by no means understood at 
first. After it was delivered, and even after the 
day of Pentecost, surprise was expressed that even 
unto the Gentiles God had granted repentance unto 
life. The time came at last, however, when the 
men who went forth to labor for Christ ceased to 
speak and act as Jews, and joyfully proclaimed a 
religion for a whole world. And the Church went 
on expanding and spreading until there was no 
part of the Roman empire in which she had not 
gained a foothold. In the first age ever^ minister 
was a missionary, and the Church of Christ felt that 
the one thing for which she existed was to diffuse 
the gospel. Christianity is essentially missionary. 
It has been said, with truth, that the missionary 
enterprise is but Christianity in action, carrying 
out the design of its Founder to subdue the whole 
world to Himself. 

Every lover of Jesus wishes from his heart that 
the missionary spirit which characterized the early 
believers had never been lost— that Christians had 
always, as at first, faithfully responded to the part- 
ing injunction of their blessed Saviour. It seems 



l66 PRA Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

strange that so plain an injunction should not al- 
ways have been as well understood as it was in the 
days of the apostles. How few really understood 
it, and fully entered into its import, at the time when 
the modern missionary spirit began to be developed 
in England and in this country, we all know. Had 
the duty laid by Christ upon His Church been even 
partially performed in every generation, from the 
time of His ascension to the present, how much 
easier would be the work which the Church now 
has to do. The difficulties which now stand in 
the way of evangelizing the whole world, though 
not incapable of being overcome, provided we have 
faith enough, are still very great. These difficulties 
exist, and they must be met. The Church cannot 
yield to them consistently with obedience to Christ. 
She has the precious assurance to encourage her — 
" Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of 
the world/' She has the many promises of the Old 
Testament that in the latter days God would pour 
out His Spirit on all flesh. She may expect to be 
herself filled with the Spirit, if she prays for the 
blessing. It is absolutely necessary that she should 
be. In no other wa}^ can she be fitted for the work of 
disci pling the nations. Not merely for her own sake 
should you pray4hat the Church may continually 



PR A Y FOR THE II OL Y SPIRIT, iQy 

enjoy effusions of the Spirit, but for the sake of the 
perishing nations for whose conversion to the faith 
she is commanded to labor. Whenever the Church 
has been largely blessed with the Spirit's quicken- 
ing influences, her members have been mightily 
strengthened and victories have been gained in the 
regions beyond. 

What is the feeling which the Church needs to 
have wrought in her by the Holy Spirit, in order 
that she may be thoroughly stirred up to engage in 
the work of discipling all nations ? 

The answer is : She needs to have w T rought in 
her an unquenchable desire to obey Christ's com- 
mand. Even were we satisfied, on good grounds, 
that the heathen are safe without the gospel, it 
would, nevertheless, be just as much a duty to send 
them the gospel as it is now, when we know they 
must perish if they do not have it. Whether they 
are in danger, in their present state of destitution, 
or not, the command of the blessed Saviour is plain. 
Our part is implicitly to obey. If we really love 
Him, to whose sufferings on our account we owe 
our salvation, obedience wall be a joy. We could 
conceive of no greater misery than to be left to go 
contrary to His will. Each member of the Church, 
purchased by the blood of God's own Son, should 



1(58 PRA Y FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

feel himself addressed whenever he reads the words, 
" Go teach all nations ;" and while humbly acknowl- 
edging that he is honored in being permitted to aid 
in the work of permanently establishing the gospel 
in every land, he should also feel that he is person- 
ally commanded to assist. . 

We ought indeed to resemble Him whom we are 
with reason expected to be like ; and as He pitied 
perishing men in heathen blindness, so we should 
pity them. We, like Christ, should be moved with 
compassion for all who are as sheep without a shep- 
herd ; and impelled by this feeling, we should be 
willing to undergo any amount of labor, and en- 
dure any amount of suffering if we can thereby 
save them. Still, the motive which should have 
the precedence of all others, is an inextinguish- 
able longing to obey our dear Lord's last com- 
mand. 

The Church has not even begun to be prepared 
to engage in this work, unless a grateful and loving 
desire to be conformed to the will of the Master is 
the motive which constrains her. 

You see, then, what the blessing is which you 
should seek for the Church, in order that she may 
be prepared to work in her missionary character. 
You should entreat the Holy Spirit to fill her with 



PRA Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 169 

a consuming desire to be obedient to the parting 
injunction of her Lord and Saviour. 

But, supposing the Church to be thoroughly 
actuated by this feeling, what special gifts does she 
need from the Holy Spirit to enable her to carry 
forward her work successfully ? 

As she is commanded to make men disciples, and 
as her office is, therefore, to teach, she must receive 
such qualifications as knowledge ; skill in teaching ; 
patience in laboring ; love for the ignorant and be- 
nighted ; faith ; zeal ; and the grace of self-denying 
liberality. 

In addition to this, she must receive wisdom to 
guide her in managing the details of her work — 
wisdom to use promptly and in the right way all 
those methods in the conduct of missions w T hich 
experience may have taught to be the best. How 
much help from God she loses in consequence of 
unfaithfulness on the part of Christians to pray for 
her, it is sad to think of. Consent not to be among 
the number of those who grievously, habitually, 
neglect to seek for the Church, by their prayers, 
the gifts so much needed for the successful prose- 
cution of her work, and which it is the sole office 
of the blessed Spirit to impart. 

The duty prescribed in our Saviour s command 

8 



1 70 Y FOR THE BOL Y SPIRIT. 

is that of teaching. And this is preaching. We 
are apt to use the word preaching in a more 
restricted sense than it is used in the Bible. The 
word does, indeed, mean the public formal procla- 
mation of the doctrine of the Cross ; but it means 
more : it comprehends other methods of communi- 
cating divine truth. Laboriously and patiently 
teaching that truth is, in Paul's sense of the word, 
preaching it. He says, in the first chapter of his 
first Epistle to the Corinthians, that God does not 
save men by the wisdom of the world, but that He 
saves them by the foolishness of preaching the hid- 
den wisdom : namely, the gospel. Any method by 
which the gospel or the hidden wisdom is com- 
municated, Paul would denominate the foolishness 
of preaching. 

We cannot expect the secure and permanent 
establishment of the gospel in heathen lands, if we 
rely altogether on the public proclamation of the 
gospel, although that method must not be neg- 
lected. It is absolutely necessary that there should 
be a resort to the employment, however self-deny- 
ing it may be, of teaching, day after day, the first 
principles of the oracles of God. If this agency, 
which the Church is bound assiduously to use, is 
trying to her faith and patience, it only shows how 



PR A Y FOR THE II OL Y SPIRIT. iyi 

much she needs to be strengthened for the work 
through your prayers. The very fact that the 
process is a slow one, shows that it is indispensable, 
for its very slowness is owing to the darkened minds, 
the degraded moral feelings, and the insensibility 
of the heathen. 

Dr. Ellinwood, Secretary of the Presbyterian 
Board of Foreign Missions in the United States, in 
a thrilling address which he lately delivered, said : 
" There can be no permanent mission work with- 
out education. A tribe in some of the mountains 
of India, or some island of the sea, may be con- 
verted — a tribe of uninfluential aborigines, though 
even among them you must establish schools. But 
especially among the great and strong races there 
can be little or nothing accomplished of a per- 
manent character, without a foundation of knowl- 
edge." 

" We should commit a fatal error,'' says Dr. 
Hodge, " if we should infer from the itinerant char- 
acter of the apostles' labors that our missionaries 
should pass, in like manner, from city to city, abid- 
ing only a few months in any one place. It would 
be most unreasonable to expect that this mode of 
operating would now be attended with a success 
analogous to that which followed similar labors of 



1 72 PRA y FOR THE II OL Y SPIRIT. 

the apostles under circumstances essentially differ- 
ent. Permanent missions must be established, and 
the people must be laboriously taught. No man 
expects to raise a crop of wheat by casting seed 
broadcast in swamps, forests, and jungles ; and just 
as little reason have we to expect a harvest of souls, 
or the secure and permanent establishment of the 
gospel in heathen lands, by any such short and easy 
method of disseminating truth." 

God's people would be continually engaged in 
praying that the Church may be quickened and as- 
sisted in her great work, if they would only always 
remember that the more faithful she is to the Sav- 
iour's command, the sooner the world will be con- 
verted ! It is in her power to hasten on the blessed 
day ; she may also, by unfaithfulness, delay it. O, 
let our supplications be abundant and unwearied, 
that the Holy Spirit would make the Church of 
Christ more engaged: more self denying, zealous, 
laborious, liberal, prayerful, wise,, and enterprising 
in carrying forward the glorious work which the 
Lord Jesus has given her to do. 



IV. 

WHILE YOU FAITHFULLY PRAY THAT THE CHURCH MAY BE 
ASSISTED TO DO HER WORK, BE EQUALLY IMPORTUNATE 
FOR THE DESCENT OF THE SPIRIT UPON THE HEA THEN 
THEMSELVES. 

A LTHOUGH the old economy was indeed 
intended by its divine founder to have an 
exclusive character, yet there was much in the 
feelings with which the Jews contemplated the 
heathen around them which was at variance with 
the precepts and requirements of their own Scrip- 
tures, and highly offensive to God. They were 
proud and self-righteous. They despised the Gen- 
tiles. They regarded them as reprobates, and un- 
worthy to have the true religion offered to them. 
Possessing themselves the advantages and privi- 
leges of that religion, they viewed without emotion 
the perishing condition of other nations. They 
had no pity on them. The prayer that God would 
have compassion on the heathen world was one 
which probably very few of the descendants of 

(173) 



1 74 PRA Y FOR TUB IIOL Y SPIRIT. 

Abraham ever offered. For this insensibility there 
was no excuse. 

They were indeed precluded, by the very nature 
of the dispensation under which they lived, from 
sending forth missions to the heathen. They were 
divided from the rest of mankind by barriers which 
God Himself had erected. They were required 
to live apart from other nations, and to avoid all 
communion with them. God had chosen them to 
be a peculiar people, and had instituted for them a 
system of religious observances in which He did 
not intend that other nations should participate. 
To them were committed the prophecies and types 
of Christ, which were designed to prepare the way 
for His coming. According to God's plan, it was 
necessary that they should remain for a time se- 
cluded from the rest of the world, in order that a 
foundation might be laid for the future ingathering 
of the Gentiles into the Church. 

But though the Jews were not to blame for mak- 
ing no attempt to convert the pagan population by 
which they were surrounded to the worship of Je- 
hovah, they ought not to have looked upon their 
hopeless condition without compassion. They 
should have so pitied them as to long and pray for 



PR A Y FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT. 175 

the day when the Messiah would come to do away 
with the distinction between jews and Gentiles, 
and give even the sons of the Stranger a place in 
His kingdom. 

That such a day was coming, they might have 
known. It was their narrow, selfish spirit which 
made them blind to the real character of their own 
dispensation. Their inspired teachers plainly taught 
them that the old economy was designed to be only 
temporary, and to prepare the way for the uni- 
versal diffusion of the truth in after ages. 

No change in the feelings of the Jews toward 
the heathen had taken place when Christ came, and 
when His apostles labored. 

During the age of the apostles, and in the first 
centuries which succeeded it, the devoted dis- 
ciples of the Lord Jesus labored for the salvation 
of all whom they were able to reach. They had 
an expansive Christian spirit. They loved be- 
nighted souls everywhere. 

Then, alas, followed many long centuries in w T hich 
the millions dying in ignorance— destroyed for lack 
of knowledge — were forgotten. In fact, it is only 
within the last sixty or seventy years that the 
Church of Christ has awakened to feel for the 



I76 PKA Y FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

heathen, to wrestle with God in concert for them, 
and to put forth the exertions required for their 
enlightenment and evangelization. 

It is very possible to offer empty petitions for the 
conversion of the nations. Prayer for their con- 
version must always be empty, which is unattended 
with active efforts and self-denying labors to send 
the gospel to them. The uselessness of prayer 
without such toils and efforts, however, should not 
for a moment cause us to forget the immense power 
which it has, when in connection with it we use 
the other means which God has instructed us to 
employ. 

If we believe that the Holy Spirit alone has 
power to change the heart, pity for the benighted 
will lead us to pray, that as fast as the truth is 
made known to them, they may experience its sav- 
ing influences. " This is the one thing needful in 
the present posture of the heathen world. The 
way of the Lord is sufficiently prepared in many 
places to admit of glorious and triumphant displays 
of His grace." 

Our Saviour commands us to pray for the con- 
version of the heathen nations, since Fie enjoins it 
upon us to pray for the extension of His kingdom 
over the whole earth. His words are : " After this 



PR A V FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. jyy 

manner, therefore, pray ye Thy king- 
dom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in 
heaven." In no way, however, can the heathen be 
converted unless they receive the Holy Spirit. If, 
then, we make no mention of them and their dread- 
ful wants in our supplications; if our intercessions 
for them that they may have the Holy Spirit are 
even intermitted, we disobey the Saviour's positive 
command. 

Believers pray that all nations and people may 
flow unto the Church when they plead for the com- 
plete establishment of Christ's kingdom in the 
world. The two petitions are the same. When, 
therefore, in the sixty-second chapter of Isaiah, 
seventh verse, the people of God are called upon 
to be importunate for the Church's establishment, 
they are called upon to plead for the ingathering 
of the nations. That verse is as follows : " Ye that 
make mention of the Lord keep not silence, and 
give him no rest till He establish and till He make 
Jerusalem a praise in the earth." In reference to 
this passage, President Edwards says : " I know of 
no place in the Bible where so strange an expres- 
sion is made use of to signify importunity in prayer. 
How strong is this phrase, and bow loud is this 



j 78 PR A Y FOR THE IIOL Y SPIRIT. 

call to the Church of God to be fervent and inces- 
sant in their cries to Hira for this great mercy. 
How wonderful the words used concerning the 
manner in which such worms of the dust should 
address the high and lofty One that inhabits eter- 
nity ! And what encouragement is here to ap- 
proach the mercy-seat with the greatest freedom, 
humble boldness, earnestness, constancy, and full 
assurance of faith, to seek of God this greatest 
favor that can be sought in Christian prayer." 

There are many passages of the Old Testament, 
a few of which we shall now quote, which foretell 
that the true religion shall prevail over the whole 
earth, that Messiah shall be a light to the Gentiles, 
and that all nations shall see the salvation of God. 
But these predictions of that glorious consumma- 
tion — and remember it as you read them — are, at 
the same time, injunctions to pray for it. That 
which God abundantly makes the subject of His 
promises, God's people should abundantly make 
the subject of their prayers. 

The Messiah is represented as saying, Ps. ii. 8 : 
"Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for 
thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the 
earth for thy possession. " In Ps. xxii. 27, it is 
said : "All the ends of the earth shall remember 



PRA Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. \ 79 

and turn unto the Lord : and all the kindreds of 
the nations shall worship before thee/' 

Isaiah says, chap. ii. verses 2, 3 : " And it shall 
come to pass in the last days- that the mountain of 
the Lord's house shall be established in the top of 
the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, 
and all nations shall flow unto it, And many people 
shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the 
mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of 
Jacob ; and he will teach of his ways, and we will 
walk in his paths." 

And, in other places, God speaks by His prophet 
as follows : " I have sworn by myself — the word is 
gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall 
not return— that unto me every knee shall bow, 
every tongue shall swear." " Behold, these shall 
come from far; and lo, these from the north and 
from the west, and these from the land of Sinim." 

" Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath 
begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, 
and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and 
fro ? and who hath brought up these ? Behold, I 
was left alone ; these, where had they been ? " 

" Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up 
mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard 
to the people ; and they shall bring thy sons in 



!8o PRA Y F0R THE H0L Y SPIRIT, 

their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon 
their shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing 
fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers : they 
shall bow down to thee with their face toward the 
earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet ; and thou 
shalt know that I am the Lord : for they shall not 
be ashamed that wait for me." 

" Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them 
stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations : 
spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy 
stakes ; For thou shalt break forth on the right hand 
and on the left ; and thy seed shall inherit the Gen- 
tiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited." 

" Behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and 
gross darkness the people ; but the Lord shall arise 
upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. 
And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and 
kings to the brightness of thy rising. Lift up 
thine eyes round about, and see : all they gather 
themselves together, they come to thee : thy sons 
shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be 
nursed at thy side. Then thou shalt see, and 
flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be 
enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall 
be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles 
shall come unto thee." 



PR A Y FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT. jgl 

" I am sought of them that asked not for me ; I 
am found of them that sought me not : I said, Be- 
hold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not 
called by my name." (xlv. 22, 23 ; xlix. 12, 21-23 J 
liv. 2, 3 ; Ix. 2-5 ; Ixv. 1.) 

And the prophet Jeremiah says (chap iii. if) : "At 
that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the 
Lord ; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, 
to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem : neither 
shall they walk any more after the imagination of 
their evil heart." 

By His prophet Hosea, God said : " i will say to 
them which were not my people, Thou art my 
people ; and they shall say, Thou art my God." 
(Hos. ii. 23.) 

Some of these promises are quoted by the 
Apostle for the express purpose of showing that 
the gospel was designed for the Gentiles, and of 
impressing on the Church its obligation to preach 
the gospel to every creature under heaven. And 
frequently, and with great earnestness, does he, in 
his epistles, set forth the purpose of God to bring 
the Gentiles into the Church. 

Be much engaged in prayer, then, for the out- 
pouring of the Spirit upon the nations, because it 
is in this way that the glorious ingathering of them 



1 82 PRA V FOR THE II GL V SPIRI7\ 

into the Church is to take place. Whenever, in 
the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit is said to be 
" poured out," it has respect to gospel times. Some 
of the promises that the Holy Spirit shall be poured 
out upon all nations are to be found in Isaiah xxxii. 
15 ; xliv. 3 ; lix. 21 ; Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27; xxxix. 29; 
Joel ii. 28, 29 ; Zech. xii. 10. 

Although many have long been engaged in plead- 
ing for the dying heathen, yet the number, after all, 
is small, compared with the multitudes who have 
neglected this duty. The majority of those who 
compose the visible Church make it manifest that 
they take little interest in the work of missions ; 
who, then, can believe that the)' pray for its success ? 
The majority, we say, manifest no vital interest in 
the cause. We see the fact in the smallness of 
the sums contributed for the support of missionary 
establishments ; for it will not be disputed that the 
amount is very little, compared with what ought 
to be contributed. We see it in the limited attend- 
ance on meetings for public and social prayer for 
the world's conversion. We see it in the fewness 
of those who subscribe for missionary publications. 
And we see it in the wealth and fashion which dis- 
play themselves in the dress, furniture, and houses 
of Christians. 



PR A Y TOR THE II OL Y SPIRIT. 183 

When we consider how wonderfully God has 
answered the prayers which the comparatively 
few faithful ones nave offered, what glorious dis- 
plays of divine grace in heathen countries might 
we not have witnessed, had every member of 
the Church of the last and present generations 
wrestled daily with God for the salvation of the 
pagan world ! 



V. 



IF YOU REALLY HAVE THE INTERESTS OF THE SAVIOUR'S 
KINGDOM MUCH A T HEART, YOU WILL PR A Y FOR THE IN- 
CREASE OF LABORERS, AND YOU WILL LIKEWISE INTER- 
CEDE FOR THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY ENTERED THE 
HARVEST, AND A. RE ACTUALLY AT WORK. 

TF it were the office of the Holy Spirit to make the 
ignorant acquainted with the truths of the Bible, 
human laborers would not be needed. But this is 
not the Spirit's office. He has done all He will ever 
do, as far as externally revealing the will of God is 
concerned. He has revealed it in His Word. To 
make it known to men is now the business of 
Christ's disciples. The Blessed Spirit has, indeed, 
a part to perform after the truth has been commu- 
nicated, but His divine saving influence has never 
been experienced, as far as we know, by any adult 
soul until the knowledge of the truth has been con- 
veyed to that soul through the instrumentality of 
some human teacher. 

Our Saviour pitied the ignorant multitude who 
daily surrounded Him, and He might have re- 
(184) 



PR A Y FOP THE HOLY SPIRIT. 185 

moved their ignorance by miracle without the 
painful exertion of teaching them. But He did 
not work a miracle to fill their minds with knowl- 
edge. He laboriously taught the people; and 
what He did for the uninstructed around Him, He 
requires us to do for the uninstructed of our day. 
The ignorant masses will never be miraculously 
made to know what it is the business of the Church 
to communicate. Laborers will always be needed. 

Angels would have considered it a great honor 
had the blessed Saviour seen fit to employ them 
in the work of extending His kingdom in this 
world, by instructing poor sinners. But God 
chooses not angels to do this thing, but men ; not 
unconverted men, but those who, though once 
under the sentence of death, are now pardoned, 
and through free grace made heirs of heaven. 
Neither does the Head of the Church limit Him- 
- self to ministers. Others are permitted to be 
workers besides these, and our Saviour did not mean 
ministers only when He commanded us to pray that 
laborers might be sent into the harvest. He will 
reward all who from love to Him devote them- 
selves to the work of advancing His kingdom. 

It is the office of the Holy Spirit to call men to 
labor in our Lord's vineyard, and it is also His 



!36 PRA y FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT, 

office to endow them with the gifts necessary to 
enable them to do the particular work assigned 
them. To one He gives one gift, to another, an- 
other, dividing to each one severally as He will. 
This is the reason why our Saviour requires us to 
pray for laborers. If they could be constituted 
laborers by hitman appointment, or could be self- 
appointed, the Church and the world would not 
have been entirely dependent, as the} 7 now are, on 
the Holy Spirit; but as ministers and all other 
workers are gifts of the Spirit, and can be obtained 
only when He furnishes them, there is no other 
way. by which a supply can be secured except by 
prayer. 

Christ's words in Matthew ix. 38 are not to be 
regarded as advice or counsel which we are at lib- 
erty to comply with or not as we please. They 
are a positive command. We are expressly com- 
manded to pray to the Lord of the harvest that He 
would send forth laborers into His harvest. He 
will be inquired of for this blessing that He may 
do it for us. There are many other places in which 
He exhorts His disciples to the duty of prayer, but 
in this He informs them particularly what to pray 
for. He puts words as it were into their mouth. 
Is it not absolutely certain, then, that the dreadful 



PR A Y FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT. i$f 

deficiency of faithful laborers affords proof that 
His command has not been obeyed? 

There are hundreds of millions of dying men in 
our world, and Christ commands His Church to 
preach the gospel to them all. He knows, how- 
ever, that she can only do this by employing men 
who are qualified for the work. But then He 
shows her how such men can be obtained. They 
can be obtained by prayer. And He commands us 
to pray for them. If we obey this command, we 
shall see our prayers answered. Laborers will be 
raised up in all parts of the world. They will be 
raised up in parts of the world and among people 
which are now in darkness and in the region of the 
shadow of death, and that in great numbers — labor- 
ers who will prove themselves, in multitudes of in- 
stances, as efficient workers under the guidance of 
the Master as the Church has ever seen, and who 
will accomplish much in the way of establishing 
His kingdom in their own lands. As soon as the 
heathen are converted to Christ, they feel that His 
parting injunction, " Go teach," is addressed to 
them. In fact, it is chiefly by means of converted 
heathen that the heathen world is to be brought 
into the Church. This is a truth which all recognize. 

But not to speak of the destitute hundreds of 



lS8 PRA y F0R THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

millions in heathen and in other far-off lands, sta- 
tistics show that from one-fourth to one-half of the 
people in every State of our Union are living with- 
out the regular ministration of the gospel ; and 
there are heathen enough in our cities to give em- 
ployment to an army of laborers. What is to be 
thought of us, if knowing these facts and knowing 
that our Lord has expressly commanded us to 
pray for laborers, we continue to be remiss in the 
duty? 

While we are required to pray that laborers may 
be raised up and sent into the harvest, it is also His 
will that we faithfully intercede for all His servants 
who have already entered the field and are actually 
at work. It is true that every believer is a servant 
of Christ, and that no man is a Christian at all who 
does not exert himself to some extent, at least, to 
further the interests of the Saviour's kingdom. 
But they are in a peculiar sense laborers who preach 
the gospel, or who not being ministers, spend their 
strength and time either in teaching God's zeord, or in 
doing work in the various departments of Christian 
effort. What an immense multitude of beloved 
workers of this description, and that of both sexes, 
there are, both in Christian and in heathen lands ! 
Let us intercede for them clay and night, and beg 



PRA Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. i 89 

the blessed Spirit of God to strengthen, comfort, 
guide, cheer, and prosper them.* 

In praying for ministers, you make a great mis- 
take if you only ask that they may be successful in 
their work. Pray, indeed, that they may be per- 
mitted to see visible results of their labors. Do 
not omit to seek that for them. Seek it very ear- 
nestly ; but pray that they may continue to be 
faithful, whether they appear to be successful or 
not. Pray that they may indeed be reapers, but 
entreat that they may not faint, should it be God's 
will that they only sow. Herein is that saying 
true says our blessed Lord, " One soweth and an- 
other reapeth.'' " The reaper is scarcely accounted 
a laborer, so light and easy is his harvest work ; 
still he is permitted to rejoice in the harvest home 



* The appeals which are constantly made to us by the mis- 
sionaries to pray for them are most affecting. " No miser," says 
one of these beloved laborers, writing from India, " ever gloated 
over his gold and coveted every shining coin more than I rejoice 
in and covet the prayers of God's people. The battle rages 
fiercely about us, the conflict is hot, and we hardly know in the 
smoke of the battle whether the din be the shout of victory or 
the wail of defeat. The result depends very much on the 
Aarons and Hurs who sit high above us on the hills of gospel 
light in the far-away Christian lands. Are their hands still 
raised ? If so, we shall prevail, even though we are faint and 
few in this dark, heathen land/' 



ig 0 PR A Y FOR THE EOL Y SPIRIT. 

with the hard-working, wrestling, waiting, watch- 
ing sower. To be in profound sympathy with the 
most high God ; to be His willing instruments for 
His sovereign pleasure, ready either for hard work 
or still harder endurance, for success or for seem- 
ing defeat; to live for God's great glory, — this is 
the chief end of the ministry, as it is of all men 
who live aright. " * 

Intercede not merely for your own pastor, but 
for all Christ's ministers in all the world of every 
Christian denomination. Pray for the increase of 
their piety : that they may be holier men ; that 
the}^ may be filled with the Spirit. It is possible 
for one to perform ministerial duties steadily, with- 
out himself cultivating those graces which he urges 

* See the article in the Presbyterian Quarterly and Princeton 
Review for January, 1873, entitled, " Why are not more persons 
converted under our ministry ? " In another paragraph of the 
same article, the writer says : " Fidelity in daikness and in diffi- 
culty, when the Church is cold and apathetic, and God's Spirit 
is withheld ; fidelity when a whole nation seems apostate, and 
there are but seven thousand of the Lord's hidden ones ; fidelity 
like that of Athanasius, when the word became proverbial, 
* Athanasius contra mundum, mundus contra Athanasium ; ' 
such fidelity compared with the richest harvest ingathering, 
marks ministerial heroism of the highest order. Such heroes 
were John Howe and John Owen in the days of Charles the 
Second. Such heroes to-day preside over multitudes of churches 
in our own land." 



PR A Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. jgi 

his hearers to cultivate — love for the Master and 
for souls, faith, humility, patience, long-suffering, a 
spirit of forgiveness, of prayer, of self-denial, and of 
liberality. Some have thought that this is a day 
of peculiar temptation for many ministers, from the 
very fact of their being so honored, beloved, and 
sedulously cherished.* 

If, in accordance with the will of God, you ear- 
nestly and importunately intercede for Christ's 
laborers, you identify yourself with them. Because 
of your loving intercessions, you are regarded by 
the blessed Saviour as yourself a laborer. " It may 
be that the lives of some are lengthened out, that 



* " Would that it were in my power to place in this pulpit a 
Paul, emaciated by fasts, worn out by toils, exhausted by watch- 
ings, pining away from confinement in prisons, mutilated by the 
rods of Phillippi and the stones of Lystra ! That sight, those 
recollections : think what an exordium for his discourse ! What 
weight, what savor, must they have given to the least of his words ! 
What power, such as never will be attained by a minister of the 
gospel, faithful in the contemporary acceptation of the word, but 
living in comfort, a stranger to suffering, largely sharing in the 
sweets of individual, domestic, social life ; honored, beloved, 
sedulously cherished by all men ! Those evangelical ministers 
of ease and comfort, alas ! must one go far to find them ? Ah ! 
were we other than we are, how could we have been produced, 
or how endured by this contemporary generation of the children 
of God ? Is it not itself the generation of ease and comfort ? " — 
Adolphe Monod. 



jg 2 y FOR THE II OL Y SPIRIT. 

they may offer up many prayers for the Church 
and the world ; for, after all the activity, and bustle, 
and zeal apparent, there is no service which can be 
performed by mortals so effectual as prayer. While 
Joshua and the men of war contend with the Amal- 
ekites in the battle, Moses assists by lifting up his 
hands in prayer ; and when he is, through fatigue, 
no longer able to hold them up, he is assisted by 
Aaron on one side and Hur on the other. Here, 
then, is a work to which you may be devoted. You 
can follow the missionary, who leaves all to go and 
labor in heathen lands." 

Flow frequently and earnestly the great Apostle 
begged an interest in the prayers of God's people, 
often enforcing his request by the tenderest con- 
siderations ! To the Christians at Rome, he says : 
" Now, I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus 
Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye 
strive, together with me, in your prayers to God 
for me, that I may be delivered from them that do 
not believe in Judea, that my service for Jerusalem 
may be accepted of the saints, that I may come un- 
to you with joy by the will of God, and may with 
you be refreshed. " (Rom. xv. 30-32). In all his 
other requests of this nature, he expresses the same 
reliance on the power of human intercession. 



PR A Y FOR THE II OL Y SPIRIT. 193 

The excellent William Romaine, of London, kept 
a list of ministers and others, whom he made the 
subjects of special intercession by name. In a let- 
ter to a friend, in regard to this practice, he says : 
" Once a week, on Friday, I have what I call the 
clergy's litany, in which, after general petitions for 
the outpouring of the Spirit upon all the ministers 
of our Church, I make mention by name of those 
my fellow-laborers whom God has highly honored 
in making them faithful and useful in the ministry. 
As I go over their names, recommending them to 
the care, and their people to the blessing, of our 
glorious Plead, it is my custom to ask particularly 
for them such things as I know or hear they want. 
To set forth Jesus, that men may behold His match- 
less glory, is our office. O, for more love to this 
precious Jesus and to His cause in your heart ! It 
will be as a thousand arguments to put you upon 
praying for an increase of laborers, and for an in- 
crease of usefulness in those He has already sent 
out. To send out ministers to promote His glory 
through the salvation of His people, is the ruling 
affection in the Head of the Church, and when" He 
intends to send them out, He gives His people the 
Spirit of prayer. " 

When Christ's servants are personally known to 
9 



194 PEA Y F0R THE H0L Y SPIRIT - 

us, we do well to pray for them by name, as this 
eminent servant of God did ; but the ear of our 
Heavenly Father is equally open to our prayers, 
when w 7 e plead for the greater number of laborers 
whom we shall never know in the flesh. 



VI. 



THE COMMAND CONTAINED IN I. TIM. II. i, TO PR A Y "FOR ALL 
MEN^ MAKES IT YOUR DUTY TO INTERCEDE FOR OTHERS 
BESIDES THOSE ALREADY ENUMERA TED. 

r | THE pious habits of even those believers of 
whom a pretty full account is given in the 
Bible, are but partially disclosed. Moses, no doubt, 
prayed much every day for the Israelites, and yet 
mention is only made of his interceding for them 
five or six times. Abraham must have interceded 
for others very frequently — for Lot, Ishmael, Isaac, 
and all his household. Since he was faithful in in- 
structing them, we may conclude that he was faith- 
ful in praying for them. And yet he is only pre- 
sented to us as offering two intercessory prayers. 
Samuel must have prayed for his countrymen all 
his life ; for, if that were not the case, he would 
hardly have said : " Moreover, as for me, God for- 
bid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to 
pray for you." 

The intercessory prayers of the New Testament 
saints, also, must have been much more frequent 

(195) 



igft PR A Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

than we would suppose, did we only judge by the 
number of times they are exhibited to us as praying 
for others. If believers prayed for Peter in prison 
without ceasing, they certainly were in the habit of ■ 
praying for Christ's servants and for each other. 
Paul's desire and entreaties for the prayers of 
others appear in all his epistles, and he knew that 
throughout the wide field of his apostolic labors, 
his request was complied with. To the Philippians 
he says : " I know that this shall turn to my salva- 
tion, through your prayer and the supply of the 
Spirit of Jesus Christ." There can hardly be a 
doubt that the Churches to which he addresses his 
epistles greatly excelled us in obeying his injunc- 
tion, or rather the command of God : " That sup- 
plications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of 
thanks be made for all men, for kings, and for all 
that are in authority. " 

Our blessed Saviour said : " It is more blessed to 
give than to receive. " We limit this exclusively 
to that form of giving which consists in aiding 
others by bestowing our worldly possessions upon 
them, but it has a wider application. To employ 
our time in devising liberal things : to give our 
thoughts, sympathies, anxieties, strength, our very 
selves to others, in efforts to relieve and help them, 



PR A Y FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT. jgy 

is more blessed than to receive the same from them. 
And our Lord may have intended to teach us that 
even in giving others our prayers, we are more 
blessed than when we are the subjects* of their 
prayers, highly favored as we are when God in- 
clines His people to intercede for us. 

The sympathies of a generous philanthropy have 
in these days been greatly aroused in behalf of the 
various classes of needy sufferers, and not only what 
is commonly called philanthropy, but Christian love, 
has led to concerted action to rescue these sufferers 
and to do them good. And surely the unhappy 
and the neglected, whom good men are making 
organized efforts to save, should be constantly re- 
membered in our prayers. We identify ourselves 
with these beloved Christian workers, when we 
daily intercede for those whom they are seeking 
to benefit. Some of those who in our day are most 
sought out and lovingly ministered unto, are Sea- 
men, Orphans, Freedraen, the wretched Poor in 
cities, Prisoners, homeless Young Men employed 
by mercantile houses, Inebriates, Emigrants from 
abroad, and forsaken and errant Children. It is 
sad to think how long the exposed and needy be- 
longing to these ranks of our fellow-creatures have 
been forgotten. In speaking a word in behalf of 



igS PRA Y F° R ? HE H 0L Y SPIRIT. 

the first of these classes — Seamen, a devoted servant 
of Jesus and a faithful friend of the Sailor, eloquent- 
ly say s : 

" How long was it before Christian watchmen 
even missed the sailor from Church assemblies ? 
How long before means were used to furnish his 
sea-chest with the Bible? How long before a 
Bethel-flag was hoisted, or a Bethel-chapel built? 
While we bless God for what has been done, and 
for the encouragement we have to proceed, Ave 
cannot but bewail the absolute destitution of the 
vast body of mariners. Immense portions of the 
Christian world take no cognizance of them as im- 
mortal beings. Congregations send up pra}' ers for 
years without remembering those whose business 
is in the great waters. And the consequence is, 
that although no field of effort has yielded more fruit 
in proportion to the labor bestowed, yet so vast is 
the amount to be compassed, that the great mass is 
not reached. Neglected mortals continue to plunge 
unprepared into eternity. It would be a consolation 
to the pallid, shivering seaman, as he spends his 
few last moments on the parting timbers, before the 
final plunge, to remember some word of promise ; 
some hour of communion; some message from 
Christ's ministers ; some precious sacrament— alas ! 



PR A Y FOR THE HOL V SPIRIT. jgg 

what multitudes have none such to remember ! 
They have come and gone for years to and from 
Christian ports, but they have found no Christian 
privilege there ; for none have taken them by the 
hand, or led them to the house of prayer. A poign- 
ant sense of this neglect moved the founders of 
Bethel Societies to begin and prosecute their 
work." 

Besides the classes which have been enumerated, 
there are those who, on account of the offices which 
they fill, the work which thej^ perform for the 
public, and the trusts committed to them, need to 
be continually commended to God. Such are 
Magistrates and Rulers, Teachers of youth, and 
those engaged in editing and conducting journals. 
The youth collected in Colleges and other Literary 
Institutions, have long been interceded for by our 
Churches in their assemblies on set days ; but it is 
to be feared that they have seldom been earnestly 
commended to God in the closet. 

Let your intercession, reader, however feeble it 
may seem to you, be put forth to move the will of 
God to show mere} 7 to all conditions of men. Other 
intercessions shall meet it at the throne of grace. 
" Yea, his shall certainly meet it which is singly 
and by itself the strongest of all forces with God— 



200 p R-± y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

powerful at all times to bend his will, and impetrate 
from him the highest blessings." 

It has been w r ell said, that in our reluctance to 
intercessory prayer, we must acknowledge, if we 
be candid with ourselves, the presence of a bad 
feeling, a great want of sympathy with others ; or, 
in other words, a lack of love. We feel no interest 
in them, and therefore do not care to pray for 
them, not considering that such selfishness invalid- 
ates and empties of efficacy our prayers for our- 
selves. 

The Church of God is constantly increasing in 
strength and numbers. The Lord is daily adding 
to it such as shall be saved. There are not only 
alwaj^s millions of advanced believers on earth, but 
there are always multitudes in the world who are 
young in the Christian life. It is astonishing that 
these newly-converted souls are so forgotten by us. 
They have become subjects of a work of grace 
under diverse circumstances, though in all cases 
by means of the truth applied by the Holy Spirit. 
If there are parts of the world, as we know there 
are, where, at this very time, the Church is re- 
freshed and gladdened by revivals, in these places 
especially many souls are daily translated into the 
kingdom of God's dear Son. Do not take it for 



PR A Y FOR, THE HOI V SPIRIT, 20 1 

granted that they are receiving from those around 
them such assistance as renders your prayers for 
them unnecessary. You know not what good you 
may do by faithfully interceding every day for the 
Church's converts. 

Pray for those who have done you wrong. Seek 
for them the same blessing which you petition for 
on behalf of those who love you — the Holy Spirit. 
Pray for all in any way dependent on you — for all 
your relatives, near and distant. You may have 
many thus to commend — parents, brothers, sisters, 
children, helpmates, friends, masters, servants, pas- 
tors, parishioners ; and may commend them all by 
the simple, quiet, devout recitation of their names. 
God understands their necessities perfectly ; and 
we may safely ask Him to supply them all accord- 
ing to the understanding which He has of them, in 
His infinite Mind.* 

"A friendly intercessor at the throne of grace is 
of more real value than many worldly friends. 
Such should be highly appreciated while they live, 
and when their death is deplored, it should be 
chiefly on this account, that we have lost one of 
the most efficient aids to our spiritual security and 



Goulburn's " Thoughts on Personal Religion." 



202 PR* y POR THE II 0L Y SPIRIT. 

advancement. In the death of Christian friends, we 
are too apt to think of the loss we suffer in a merely 
temporal point of view. But one who has learned 
the way of access to the throne of grace, and has 
become familiar in his approaches to God : who 
has daily wrestled in prayer, and whose prayers of 
faith have been effectual, subjects his surviving 
friends, by his death, to a much greater loss than 
can be estimated by the ordinary rules of calcula- 
tion. He will pray no longer for us, nor use his 
influence at the throne of grace in our behalf. We 
have lost an advocate and intercessor in regard to 
interests of deep moment." 

Dominion over the whole universe was given to 
our Lord after His resurrection. All power in 
heaven and earth was then committed to His hands, 
and He reigns as Mediatorial King. Pray, then, 
incessantly that He would make all things concur in 
the execution of His glorious designs. Entreat 
Him to make governments, wars, revolutions, in- 
ventions, discoveries ; all human plans and enter- 
prizes, good and bad ; all science ; all the arts ; all 
knowledge,, tributary to the advancement of His 
kingdom. And as fallen spirits, no less than good 
angels and men, are in complete subjection to Him, 
earnestly and incessantly pray that He would de- 



PRA V FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 203 

fend poor perishing souls, and especially all His 
people, from the arts, malice, designs, and power 
of the Evil One, and even limit, diminish, and de- 
stroy Satan's entire kingdom. 



VII. 



AS IT IS A PART OF THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD TO RE- 
STRAIN MEN AND KEEP WITHIN BOUNDS THEIR CORRUP- 
TIONS, YOU SHOULD PRAY THAT HE WOULD MORE AND 
MORE RESTRAIN THE WICKED. 

/~\NE of the ways by which He exercises an in- 
fluence to restrain ungodly men is by co- 
operating for that purpose with the truth already 
presented to their minds. 

Millions of wicked men in our world have some 
knowledge of the truths of the Bible. This is the 
necessary result of their having been born in Chris- 
tian communities, and of their being surrounded 
by those who fear God and openly keep His com- 
mandments. Though such men may succeed in 
keeping themselves remote from all the direct 
means of religious instruction, they cannot prevent 
the truth from having an indirect influence upon 
them. More or less truth has entered their minds, 
and if they are raised in the scale of intellectual 
and moral being above the heathen, it is owing to 
the power over them of that very truth which they 

do not love. 

(204) 



PRA Y TOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 205 

Now, it is partly by using that amount of divine 
truth which wicked men have reluctantly imbibed 
that the Holy Spirit operates on their minds to 
hold their corruptions under restraint. Insensible 
as they may be, He guards against their sinking 
into that degree of insensibility which would allow 
of their utterly and totally disbelieving the truth. 
There is a secret conviction in their breasts that 
the solemn and fearful things spoken of in the Bible 
are real. The Holy Spirit having intimate access 
to their souls, keeps their moral nature roused ; and 
as long as man's moral nature is active, he will be 
convinced by the internal evidence which the Word 
of God contains, that it is indeed His Word. 

No soul having this insight into the truths of the 
Bible, and awakened to see the divinity which is in 
them, can sin as it otherwise would. It is held 
under restraint. It experiences the power of the 
truth thus apprehended, to produce in it a feeling 
of its accountability to the righteous Governor of 
the world. 

Most of the fallen inhabitants of this earth, how- 
ever, are in heathen darkness, and are entirely un- 
acquainted with the truths revealed in the Scrip- 
tures. But we are not to suppose that, on that 
account, the Holy Spirit has no truth which He 



2o6 PR A Y FOR THE HOI Y SPIRIT. 

can use to restrain their wickedness. They possess 
that same moral constitution which belongs to 
other men, and, therefore, though they know not 
the way to be saved, yet they are not destitute of 
light — they have knowledge of moral truth — they 
know what is right. They are not ignorant of the 
righteous judgment of God, and that they which 
do such things are worthy of death. No ; even the 
heathen, though they may be to a fearful extent 
given up and judicially abandoned, are not as to- 
tally unrestrained as are the lost in the world of 
despair. While their corruptions are allowed to 
flow out so far as may serve to accomplish God's 
holy purposes, yet even their wickedness the om- 
nipotent Spirit confines within bounds. 

By cooperating with the truth, then, the Holy 
Spirit exerts His influence to keep the ungodly in 
check. With every human mind He is present, 
enforcing truth and restraining from evil. As to 
the nature of His influence, which He thus exer- 
cises in a greater or less degree on the minds of 
men — as to the way in which He comes in contact 
with the soul, and so operates upon it that the truth 
lodged within becomes quick and powerful, we are 
left in ignorance. 

But it is not merely by using the truth as an in- 



PRA Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 207 

strument that the Holy Spirit keeps down the 
wicked. Doubtless He also exerts a restraining 
influence by acting upon them directly and imme- 
diately. 

We know not how to be sufficiently grateful for 
those influences of the Spirit of God which are 
common to all men. The Bible shows us what 
would be the effect of His entire withdrawal from 
the control of rational creatures by the glimpse 
which it gives us of the state of the lost, both men 
and angels. " Heaven is a place and state in which 
the Spirit reigns with absolute control. Hell is 
a place and state in which the Spirit no longer 
restrains and controls. The presence or absence 
of the Spirit makes all the difference between 
heaven and hell. To the general influence of the 
Spirit we owe all the decorum, order, refine- 
ment, and virtue existing among men. Mere 
fear of future punishment, the natural sense 
of right, and the restraints of human laws, would 
prove feeble barriers to evil, were it not for the re- 
pressing power of the Spirit which> like the pres- 
sure of the atmosphere, is. universal and powerful 5 
although unfelt."* 



* Dr. Hodge. 



208 PRA Y FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT, 

The more the evil which is in men is checked 
and curbed, the better is it for sinners themselves — 
the better it is also for the Church and the world ; 
and therefore we should pray very earnestly that 
God would send forth His Spirit expressly to limit 
and repress human wickedness. If we who love 
Zion ask God to coerce and restrain by His provi- 
dential efficiency Satan and the Powers of Dark- 
ness, why should we not also entreat Him to keep 
under and bind by the influence of His Spirit the 
unholy passions of the unrighteous? Besides, the 
bad in this world belong to Satan, and are a part 
of his kingdom. He does all in his power to in- 
crease and heighten the violence of their corrup- 
tions ; he likewise by his wiles entices them in the 
paths of sin as far as he can. So that when the 
wicked men of the world are restrained, the ad- 
versary's empire is checked in its progress. 

Our blessed S aviour nas been exalted to His 
mediatorial throne on purpose that He may cause 
the doings of evil men to work together for the 
establishment of His kingdom. And one way by 
which he makes their actions tributary to its estab- 
lishment, is by confining their corruptions— by say- 
ing to them : " Thus far shalt thou go, but no far- 
ther." 



PR A Y FOR THE II OL Y SPIRIT. 209 

However much external polish a man may have, 
yet if his heart has become hardened and very vile, 
two consequences follow : his influence for evil is 
powerful and wide-spread, and the probability of 
his own conversion is far less than it once was. Men 
of this description abound. Why was not the* 
Spirit's influences sought for them by God's pray- 
ing people before they attained to their present 
degree of vileness? We are persuaded that Chris- 
tians pray far too little that God would by His 
Holy Spirit restrain wicked men. Therefore it is 
that we urge you to offer daily this request. 



VIII. 



YOU DO TRULY SEEK THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR YOUR FELLOW- 
MEN WHEN YOU EARNESTLY PR A Y FOR THE PROGRESS OF 
CHRIST S KINGDOM IN THE WORLD BY MEANS OF GENUINE 
REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 



HAT it is the design of God that the work of 



redemption should be carried on in part by 
means of revivals will not be disputed, and we 
should desire and pray for their frequent recur- 
rence. Before, however, considering the induce- 
ments to petition God for them, we will very 
briefly look at the other methods by which the 
Saviour builds up His kingdom. 

As far as the children of the covenant are con- 
cerned, we know that they are to be trained up 
both by their parents and by the Church as those 
already belonging to God. And if these parents 
and the Church are faithful to their trust, they will 
not lose their reward. They will, in due time, find 
that the God of the covenant has also been faithful 
to His promise. Their children will by their godly 




(210) 



PRA Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT, 2 1 1 

lives give evidence of having indeed undergone 
the second birth, and of being the subjects of a 
continuous work of grace. 

According to this method — one which God's 
people have always recognized as included in the 
divine plan 3 and which we see from both the Old 
and the New Testaments is very dear to the heart 
of God — the manifest and striking conversion of 
multitudes simultaneously is out of the question. 
It is a method of increase by which Christ's king- 
dom grows from within. Unless we earnestly de- 
sire in behalf of Zion this kind of growth, and un- 
ceasingly pray for it, and diligently use the means 
which are adapted to bring it about, we are guilty 
of a neglect, the effects of which upon the Church 
and upon our children must be disastrous in the 
highest degree. These means are none other than 
the early, assiduous, and faithful culture of the 
young, mainly by their Christian parents. 

This parental culture or Christian training as a 
means for the salvation of the children and the in- 
crease of the Church has, as was said, been always 
more or less recognized as one of God's own ap- 
pointment. The divine blessing on its use is se- 
cured by the precious promises with which all are 
so familiar. But though the creeds of most ^van- 



2 1 2 PRA Y FOR THE HOI Y SPIRIT. 

gelical Churches are on this subject sound and in 
accordance with the teachings of Scripture, yet in 
practice they have often placed a disproportionate 
reliance on the proclamation from the pulpit as the 
only means of conversion. 

The growth of the Church through the cultiva- 
tion of family religion " is the natural method of 
increase, and it accords also with the inspired ex- 
planation, through Malachi, of God's intent, in the 
institution of marriage and of the family, 1 that he 
might seek a godly seed/ " * 

But Christ's kingdom on earth also makes prog- 
ress by gradual accretion — by the conversion and 
reception into the Church of small numbers, from 
time to time. The Church has ever grown, " not 
merely by great sudden movements, such as that 
of Pentecost, but also by constant though insensi- 
ble accretion." It ought not to be disputed that 
this, too, is a method of God's own choosing. 
Many Churches, both in this country and in other 
lands, have been, by God's blessing upon them, 
preserved in a healthy state for years, using only 
the ordinary means of grace. They have been 



* Rev. Dr. Pattern's paper on Revivals of Religion read before 
the late Evangelical Alliance. 



PR A Y FOR THE HOL V SPIRIT. 2 1 3 

permitted to witness for a long series of years, and 
that without interruption, a steady, quiet ingather- 
ing of souls from the world. 

The writer has long been acquainted with a pas- 
tor whose church, from the time of his first settle- 
ment over them until the present, has been thus 
favored ; and yet nothing has ever been published 
in the religious papers in regard to its condition. 
Speaking especially of the state of things which 
existed during a certain period of the history of 
his church, he says: "The promise, 'I will be as 
the dew unto Israel,' was sweetly fulfilled. Gently 
the grace of our Lord Jesus distilled upon us. 
He seemed to breathe on all our assemblies and 
say, ' Receive ye the Holy Ghost.' We did not 
multiply religious services, because we thought it 
better to attend those already established, and to 
put honor on home duties. Adults and youth gave 
themselves to Jesus, believing that they were no 
longer their own, but were bought with a price. 
Those precious years, I am sure, did much to estab- 
lish our hearts in the faith of the gospel, to strength- 
en us for Christian toil, to bind us together in the 
love of brethren, and though we knew it not then, 
to help us safely through the stormy period of our 
history, when the fearful commotions of the State 



214 PRA Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

threatened the Churches through the length and 
breadth of our darkened land." 

The church of this favored pastor has had no 
revivals with protracted meetings, or meetings 
additional to the usual ones ; and yet it has so 
prospered and increased as to be able, on three dif- 
ferent occasions, to give away members and families 
to form separate organizations, which, beginning 
their existence with small numbers, are now three 
flourishing churches. 

Still another way by which the Church of Christ 
makes progress, is by revivals, in which multitudes 
are at one time born again by the power of the 
Holy Spirit and brought to the Saviour. When- 
ever, within a short period, large accessions are 
thus made from the classes of the impenitent and 
the ungodly, it is entirely owing to a gracious out- 
pouring of the Spirit of God. 

Now, it is our privilege to pray for the fre- 
quent recurrence of revivals in all places where the 
Church is planted and the gospel is proclaimed. It 
is granted us to ask freely and importunately that 
the Church may be more- and more favored with 
special seasons of mercy, in which, as the result of 
copious effusions of the Spirit, her numbers may 



PR A Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 2 1 5 

be greatly multiplied. Our object is to urge you 
to offer this prayer. A word or two first, however, 
by way of explanation. 

There is a difference between praying for a 
revival in the particular local church, where our 
name is enrolled, and entreating God to revive the 
Church at large. It is this latter request which we 
would more especially entreat you to present to 
God. This, above all other kinds of intercessory 
prayer, is most free from selfishness, and it is even 
the best way to intercede for the little society with 
w T hich we are more palpably connected. If the 
Church at large is greatly blessed, your own will 
share the blessing. When we are too exclusively 
interested in the local body, with which we are, as 
it seems to us, especially identified, God, in His 
condescending love, may not reject our prayers in 
its behalf, but He may answer them by blessing 
some part of His earthly kingdom, remote from 
where we live. And we should be grateful if He 
does answer us in this way, since, even then, He is 
using us to promote His glory and the good of 
souls. Even our own country should not be thought 
of too exclusively. Angels are at this very time 
rejoicing over the repentance of multitudes of con- 



2 i6 PR A Y FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

verts in Great Britain ; they are rejoicing just as 
much as if these conversions had taken place in this 
country, and so should we.* 

While we do not overlook the importance of 
earnestly pleading in the sanctuary and in the 
meeting of brethren, that multitudes may at once 
be turned unto God, yet we are mainly anxious to 
prevail upon you to be earnest and importunate for 
this blessing in your secret prayers. 

When we thus plead for the simultaneous con- 
version of multitudes, our supplications may assume 
one of two forms, according as our thoughts dwell 
on the instrument or on the power. If that which 
is the more prominent and vivid in our minds is the 
instrument, our petition will be that the truth may 
have efficacy ; that the Word may mightily grow 
and prevail, and may so prosper in the thing where- 
unto it is sent as to effect a saving change in thou- 
sands ; that preachers may be blessed in their labors 
and may be successful in winning, in a brief period, 
vast numbers to Christ. But if the power is more 
prominent and vivid in our minds, our prayer will 
be that the Holy Spirit, abundantly poured out, 
would breathe upon the slain, and cause them to 

* The above was written at the time of the religious movement 
in Great Britain, under Moody and Sankey. 



PR A Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 2 1 7 

live ; would, by His divine energy, open the hearts 
of multitudes, sweetly constraining them to attend 
to the things spoken ; would create anew thousands 
of spiritually dead souls and unite them to Christ 
by an effectual calling. 

Now it is a benefit, whilst we are supplicating, to 
have the power uppermost in our minds — the Holy 
Spirit — because we are ever apt to see more clearly 
the necessity of instruments than we are to feel 
profoundly human dependence on divine influence. 
Such is our weakness that there is always a ten- 
dency in us to have faith in the instrument, instead 
of in the power. " The Spirit first, the Spirit last, 
ought to be remembered, trusted in, exalted." The 
total spiritual death of the soul renders the mere 
use of means and the labors of human instruments 
and agencies working alone, utterly powerless. 

As no wicked being is as powerful as the Holy 
Spirit of God, no wicked being can prevent Him 
from creating anew, in a moment of time, as many 
as He pleases thus to quicken, though Satan would 
willingly, if he could, contend successfully with 
his Creator, and hinder Him from calling the spirit- 
ually dead to life. 

One reason for continuing in prayer for abundant 
10 



2 1 8 PRA y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

outpourings of the Holy Spirit, and for the sudden 
conversion of multitudes, is that such visitations 
will bring on more rapidly the latter-da) 7 glory. 

It would seem to be indispensable that from time 
to time the cloud of mercy above should burst and 
pour down a flood at once, unless the time of the 
final subjugation of the world to Christ is, accord- 
ing to the plan of God, far more distant than any 
one believes it to be. Our Saviour's method of 
carrying on the work of Redemption does, indeed, 
require the use of other means besides revivals ; 
but, if His kingdom is to gain only and always 
by slow degrees, how are 1,200,000,000 of souls 
ever to be converted ? It would seem to be nec- 
essary that there should now and then be periods 
of sudden and very great expansion. Even then, 
however, the latter-day glory must be exceedingly 
distant, if these precious seasons are to be few and 
far between. Nothing can insure the speedy estab- 
lishment of our dear Lord's kingdom on the ruins 
of Satan's kingdom, but the frequent repetition of 
revivals, provided these are genuine, powerful, and 
extensive. May Ave not expect such glorious repeti- 
tion ? We may, if we humbly, but importunately, 
wrestle for it, with our souls filled with unutter- 
able longings for the salvation of men, and for the 



PR A Y FOR THE IIOL Y SPIRIT. 2 1 9 

crowning of our Saviour Lord of all. May not the 
time come when Christians will look back on Pen- 
tecost as a day of small things, compared with that 
which has dawned on the Church ? 61 It is to be 
hoped," says Dr. Hodge, " that a new effusion of the 
Spirit, like that of the day of Pentecost, may be 
granted to the Church, whose fruits shall as far ex- 
ceed those of the first effusion as the millions of 
Christians now alive exceed in number the one 
hundred and twenty souls then gathered in Jeru- 
salem." * 

This reason for supplicating for.powerful revivals 
is one which, in times gone by, has stirred up the 
best of God's people to offer such prayer, so that we 
are all the more inexcusable if we fail to be influ- 
enced by it. 

During the years 1744 and 1745, many ministers 
and large numbers of God's people in Scotland and 
England spent, by agreement among themselves, a 
portion of every Saturday evening and Sabbath 
morning in earnest prayer for " an abundant effu- 
sion of the Holy Spirit on all the Churches and the 
whole habitable earth, and for the reviving of true 
religion in all parts of Christendom." At the ex- 



* Dr. Hodges Theology, Vol. III., p. 804. 



220 PRA y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

piration of the two years, the ministers agreed on 
a memorial to be printed and sent abroad to their 
brethren in various parts of Great Britain and to 
the Christians in this country, proposing to them 
and requesting of them to join in this method of 
united prayer. Copies of this memorial were cir- 
culated according to the plan. President Edwards 
was deeply interested in the whole movement, and 
it was the occasion of his writing his celebrated 
" Humble attempt to promote explicit agreement 
and visible union of God's people, in Extraordi- 
nary Prayer for tjie revival of religion and the ad- 
vancement of Christ's kingdom on earth. " Who 
shall tell when the glorious power of the innumer- 
able prayers offered in response to the appeal of 
those good men shall end? 

Other examples might be presented of holy men 
pleading with God for the pouring out of the 
Spirit and for world-wide revivals of religion. 

There have been held in our country occasion- 
ally conventions of ministers and elders for special 
prayer. In a convocation of this kind which met 
in the city of Pittsburgh, in 1842, a venerable serv^ 
ant of God made this impressive statement: "I 
have in my mind one who, when brought into the 
Church, could not read the Bible; yet that man 



PR A V FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT. 2 2I 

did more for the cause of Christ than many minis- 
ters. He lay, I think, at the foundation of the 
great revival which took place forty years ago. He 
was a wrestling Jacob, who poured out his soul to 
God. A hundred times have I knelt with him in a 
solitary thicket and implored God to pour out His 
Spirit on the whole Church. 5 ' 

It is well known that the first of the daily prayer- 
meetings with which the revival of 1857 began was 
held in the Consistory room of the North Dutch 
Church, at the corner of William and Fulton 
streets, New York. Speaking of that precious 
work of grace, James W. Alexander, in his little 
book, " The Revival and its Lessons, 5 ' says: 
" Prayers long treasured-up were beginning to 
receive copious answer — prayers of which some 
we have thought may have been offered by those ven- 
erable ministers of Holland whose portraitures still 
adorn the walls of the Cojisistory room" 

Another reason for desiring and praying for the 
conversion of great multitudes at once is, that by 
such remarkable displays of grace, God is, at the 
very time of their occurrence, greatly glorified. 

" If a large number of thoughtless youths, or 
confirmed sinners," says William Arthur,* " be- 

* " Tongue of Fire. " 



222 P RA Y POR THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

come devoted to God through the instrumentality 
of some one preacher, and if this extend to neigh- 
borhood after neighborhood, a feeling falls upon 
spectators. that it is not to be accounted for by rea- 
soning about proportion, but by the operation of a 
superior power. Let but the results of preaching, 
as to the number and suddenness of the conver- 
sions, pass a certain point — let the number be thou- 
sands, and the time one day — and the idea of at- 
tributing this to the power of men would not enter 
the mind. Who ever thought, on reading that 
three thousand Jews were converted on the day of 
Pentecost, and lived holy lives afterward, of ex- 
claiming, 6 What a preacher Peter was ! ' The 
magnitude of the effect at once suggests a super- 
human cause. Had the result been small, the man 
would have been glorified ; but when it took such 
proportions, he was thrown into the shade, and the 
i mighty power of God ' alone occupies the mind." 

No wide-spread movement of this kind ever oc- 
curred in which men were not constrained to adore 
the majesty, power, and grace of God ; and no 
doubt it is in order to display His power and glory, 
that God at times carries forward His cause in 
this way. Even the ungodly are often at such 
seasons compelled to use the language of saints, 



PR A Y FOR THE IIOL Y SPIRIT. 2 2$ 

and sa}% " This is the finger of God." The glory 
of God the Saviour is the chief end to be regarded 
in the salvation of souls ; and perhaps our prayers 
for the frequent recurrence of revivals would be 
more prevalent with God, were we when offering 
such petitions, more influenced by the desire that 
our blessed Redeemer should be glorified. 

In the next place, the good to neighboring com- 
munities, and the benefit to the whole Church, 
which hitherto have accompanied and grown out 
of ever} 7 extensive revival, ought to be remembered. 

Whenever such a gracious visitation has been 
vouchsafed to any people, it lias invariably proved 
the means , of preparing souls in other places for a 
similar blessing. Sometimes the flame is kindled 
in so many places that the whole land is over- 
spread ; and a revival of peculiar power has even 
exerted an influence over lands far away. 

A powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon 
.the community increases the demand for ministers, 
and also secures a greater supply of ministers. 
The ranks of the army are replenished. " When 
conversions are not few, but many ; when ' num- 
bers turn to the Lord ; ' when there are many re- 
penting, and many rejoicing, saying, ' We have 



224 PRA Y F0R THE H0L Y SPIRIT. 

redemption in His blood, even the forgiveness of 
sins ' — then will assuredly appear some with plain 
marks that the spirit of the prophets is in them, 
and that they are called to spread far and wide the 
glorious salvation of which they themselves par- 
take. It is also wonderful how much the occur- 
rence of conversions heightens the efficiency of 
men already employed in the ministry, or in other 
departments of the work of God. The joy of con- 
quest breathes new vfgor into all the Lord's host." 

As the result of great and extensive revivals, the 
Church is often stimulated to start new plans and 
organizations for evangelistic effort. It is impos- 
sible that the effect of a genuine work of grace, ex- 
tending over a large part of the Church of Christ, 
should not be both permanent and quickening. A 
vast increase of the number of believers, together 
with the strengthening of the graces of God's 
people, must necessarily be attended with an eleva- 
tion in the general standard of piety and efficiency. 
The very idea of a revival is that of an increase of 
religious life ; and how can the Church's religious 
life become more vigorous without an increase of 
her resources and capacity of usefulness, as well as 
in her activity and zeal? We are not surprised 
therefore, when, upon studying the history of past 



PRA Y FOR THE HQL V SPIRIT. 2 2$ 

great revivals, we find that they have been the 
means of arousing the whole Church to new exer- 
tions to extend Christ's kingdom. 

But another and very important reason why we 
should pray for powerful and abundant outpour- 
ings of the Holy Spirit remains to be presented. 
It is derived from the encouragement which God has 
given us thus to pray, in that He has abundantly 
shown us that this is one of the ways by which Fie 
delights to advance His kingdom. 

Not only may Pentecost, with its thousands of 
conversions, be appealed to in proof of this, but 
evidence is also furnished by the rapid accessions 
to the Church during the whole of the first two 
centuries. If it is certain that ministers of the 
Lord Jesus, laymen, devoted and fearless women, 
and even slaves, then united in bringing the gospel 
to the different circles of society, and that commerce 
likewise was a powerful agenc) 7 in carrying it to the 
remotest parts of the Roman empire, it is equally 
evident that the Holy Spirit attended the truth 
diffused in this manner, with His converting in- 
fluence, and that as fast as it was disseminated. It 
is mainly from the lan^ua2*e occasionallv emoloyed 
by the early Apologists and Controversialists that 
we are informed concerning the wonderful growth 

10° 



226 PRA V FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

.of the Church, and her rapid advance on the world. 
The triumphs of Christianity during so short a 
period, can only be accounted for on the assump- 
tion that the Christian host was constantly swelled 
by the addition of large numbers. 

In succeeding ages, similar outpourings of the 
Spirit were attended with the same effects. What 
was the Reformation but a glorious revival of 
religion ? The Spirit convinced men of sin, of 
righteousness, and of judgment. There were 
stormy controversies for truth and right, but these 
did not stand in the way of conviction of sin and 
conversion unto God. A large part of the time of 
the Reformers was taken up in giving counsel to 
the inquiring and the tempted. The questions 
which were publicly debated often received their 
importance from the connection which they had 
with the personal interest of souls in distress about 
the way of salvation. This state of things reigned 
throughout whole countries. Almost the entire 
continent of Europe was shaken. 

Every one knows how it was in Germany. 

McCrie, in his " History of the Reformation in 
Spain," speaking of the horrible Inquisition and 
other measures used to destroy the Reformed 
Church in that country, says : " Had these obstruc- 



PR A Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 22? 

tions to the progress of the reformed doctrine in 
Spain been removed, though only in part and for a 
short time, it would have burst into a flame, which, 
spreading over the whole kingdom, would have 
consumed the Inquisition, the hierarchy, the 
Papacy, and the despotism by which they were 
upheld. These were the deliberately - expressed 
sentiments of the decided enemies of the Reforma- 
tion. ' Had not the Inquisition taken care in time/ 
says one of them, ' to put a stop to these preachers, 
the Protestant religion would have run through 
Spain like wildfire.' " If any one wishes to know 
how the reformed religion spread in Italy, and how 
numerous the converts were in that country, let him 
read the "History of the Reformation in Italy," by 
the same writer. Truly, as one has said, the Ref- 
ormation was a second Pentecost. " Sermons and 
preachers seemed magnetic with the Holy Spirit." 

But in no country was the truth taught and the 
W ord preached with greater success than in France. 
Not only a large portion of the people in inferior 
stations, but many belonging to the class of nobles 
and princes, as well as men of wealth and learning, 
embraced the reformed faith. And they did this in 
opposition to all their temporal interests, and in 
spite of the greatest persecutions. In some parts 



228 P&A Y FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT. 

of the kingdom the entire population of all ranks, 
from the highest to the lowest, had become Prot- 
estants. Such wonderful progress did the Reforma- 
tion make ; its progress was really by a succession 
of glorious revivals. The blessed Spirit so attended 
the truth which was faithfully taught, and gave 
that truth such effect, that it was rapidly leavening 
the whole nation, and making France as religious 
and noble a people as the world has ever seen. 
Had it not been by dreadful and long-continued 
persecution suppressed, how different would have 
been the subsequent career of France from what 
it has actually been ! How different would have 
been the character of her people ! We shall never 
know, until the results are disclosed in eternity, 
how gloriously the work of the divine Spirit went 
forward in those days of the Church's advancement, 
struggles, and sufferings.* 

If many churches in Europe have lost nearly all 
they gained by the Reformation, it has not been so 
with the Church of Scotland. In that land the re- 
sults have been permanent. W e cannot stop to 
show this, nor can we speak of the many revivals 
with which that highly-favored people have been 



* See Appendix, page 251. 



PR A Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 2 2$ 

visited. We must also forbear to enlarge on the 
blessed outpourings of the Spirit under the Bun- 
}-ans and Baxters of England. 

And how has it been in our own country ? All 
know how often in this land these seasons of mercy 
have been enjoyed. Sometimes these have been 
general, but " the two which are the most distin- 
guished for the power with which the Holy Spirit 
was poured out, for the distinctness of the concur- 
rent evidences that the work was from God, and 
by the beneficent results which followed, were 
those of 1730 and of 1800, and the years adjacent/' 

It would be difficult to describe how great a change 
was wrought by the great awakening which occur- 
red at the earlier of these elates throughout New 
England and portions of the Middle States, and of 
Virginia. The principal laborers from 1740, and a few 
years onward, were Whitefield, Edwards, the Tenn- 
ents, and Davies. It is the remark of a writer, speak- 
ing of the scenes witnessed in those days in the Mid- 
dle States, that the pious now living in that region of 
our country are not aware that the ground on 
which they tread has, as it were, been hallowed by 
the footsteps of the Almighty. Our whole popu- 
lation owes much that is good in its character to 
the revivals of that period, and to the Presbyterian 



230 Y F 0R THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

Church particular!}' they were the commencement 
of a new life, " the vigor of which is still felt in all 
her veins/ 3 

While speaking of examples in our own country, 
we ought not entirely to pass by the precious re- 
viving of 1857. It began with the pouring out 
from on high of the Spirit of grace and supplica- 
tions, amid one of the greatest commercial alarms 
which our country ever experienced. Although 
calamities of this kind often produce a hardening 
effect, yet it pleased God at that time " by the 
plowshare of His judgments, to furrow the ground 
for precious seed of salvation, and to make dis- 
tresses touching worldly estate to awaken desire 
for durable riches, and to call forth spiritual yearn- 
ings and thirstings after the fountain of living 
waters/ 1 

Thus, it appears that the rapid ingathering of 
many souls is a means which God has often hon- 
ored for the exaltation of His Church ; and this, as 
was said, should be an encouragement to us to 
pray for sudden and large accessions in time to 
come. 

As in the past periods of the Church and in ages 
gone by, revivals occurred in every part of Chris- 
tendom ; so, even at the present day, they occur 



PR A Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 23 1 

wherever there are churches and wherever the 
gospel is preached. They are not a phenomenon 
which, in this age, is especially characteristic of 
American churches. Perhaps these visitations 
will no longer be called, as they have sometimes 
been, an American peculiarity, now that one of the 
most remarkable revivals that has ever occurred is 
attending our own Moody's labors, and the labors 
of other devoted servants of Christ, in Great 
Britain.* 

If revivals mean a great and sudden multipli- 
cation of believers as the result of the supernatural 



* A judicious writer, speaking on this subject, says: ''It may- 
aim ost be doubted whether they are of more frea x uent occur- 
rence here than in Great Britain. We fear that the only differ- 
ence is, that we make more noise about them ; that we number 
the people more frequently, and publish the result more ostenta- 
tiously." The advantages which may attend the notoriety given 
to every little case of religious excitement in this country are, we 
fear, more than counterbalanced by the evils which follow. It 
has been suggested that all the desirable ends of publicity might 
be attained by the regular annual reports of ecclesiastical bodies, 
without the evils attending on the loose accounts with which the 
newspapers abound. We suppose that our journalists must pub- 
lish the accounts of revivals and of religious interest which are 
sent to them, but the anxiety of many pastors to have the papers 
forthwith report to the public all the instances of religious inter- 
est which may exist in their congregations, we never could under- 
stand. 



232 PRA Y FOR THE IIOL Y SPIRIT. 

operation of the Holy Spirit on the souls of men, 
they cannot, of course, be productive of evil — they 
can be productive of nothing but good. The sins 
and follies associated with them are just the sins 
and follies of men who were never truly converted, 
or else of men who, if not self-deceived as to their 
piety, are at least very imperfectly. sanctified ; not 
the sins and follies of men alone however, for 
Satan is always present doing his own work, except 
in so far as he is hindered in answer to the prayers 
of Christians. 

Real Christians never did and never will oppose 
a work of grace, and they ought not to be charged 
with doing so. Is not the language of all true be- 
lievers, "I love Thy kingdom, Lord"? Do not 
rivers of waters run down their eyes because men 
keep not God's law? Do they not feel that heaven 
itself could hardly be more delightful than this 
world would be, were every person on earth a lover 
of Jesus ? 

Sometimes, however, all that is intended in refer- 
ence to those thus accused is, that they are too 
sensitive and anxious on account of the great evils 
which so often mar the work of God. When this 
is all that is meant, the state of mind which is 
deprecated does not justify the use of the language 
in which the charge is often couched. 



PRA Y FOR THE HOIY SPIRIT. 233 

In regard to tlie evils which so often attend re- 
vivals, men may go to two opposite extremes. On 
the one hand, they may be excessively anxious and 
discouraged on account of these evils ; and on the 
other, they may fail to give them any attention 
whatever, and may exercise no watchfulness 
against them. 

There is a class of evils such as extravagances, 
excesses, nervous excitements, etc., which some 
churches, in the midst of a revival, are in no dan- 
ger whatever of falling into ; but there are certain 
fatal mistakes against which even the best of Chris- 
tians, in times of great awakenings, are not so 
secure. On the contrary, it is very difficult to 
avoid them. 

Now, it is important that our attention should 
be called to these grievous mistakes, in order that 
when we would pray that revivals may be pre- 
served from harm, we ma}- definitely know what 
to ask of God. Perhaps the prevalence of these 
false ideas is not often occasioned by powerful re- 
vivals in the Church at large ; but that they are 
almost certain to accompany regularly returning 
seasons of religious interest and excitement in 
separate local churches will, we think, be admitted 
as soon as thev are stated.- 



234 PRA Y F0R TI1E HOLY SPIRIT. 

i 0 In the first place, there is the mistake of rely- 
ing on revivals as the only, or almost the only 
means of promoting religion in the Church. This 
is far from being a trifling evil. The ordinary 
means of grace are very precious, and it is the will 
of God that we make much of them. And yet, 
with some, it is so much a habit to rely on revivals 
as the means of conversion, and of the growth in 
grace of members, that all other means are lost 
sight of. Indeed, in reading a certain book lately, 
entitled " Revivals of Religion : their Theory, 
Means, Obstructions, Uses, and Importance/' we 
came across these very words : " The real question 
at issue is, Which is best for the cause — to have re- 
vivals of religion, or continual death and decay ?" 
It would seem as if the mind of the writer had 
never been visited with the idea that there are 
other means of divine appointment for the conver- 
sion of sinners and the edification of saints. God, he 
thinks, intends that there should always be decline 
and revival, and we ourselves must look for it. " To 
look," he says, " for spiritual improvement in any 
other way would be to expect the Divine Being to 
change His established mode of operation. It has 
uniformly occurred under powerful excitements, 
and this method is no less philosophical than gen- 



PR A Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 235 

eral. Revivals of religion, therefore, are just as 
important as it is to save the Church from entire 
and unceasing apostasy/' 

This being God's " established mode of opera- 
tion," it, of course, follows that visible success is 
the proper criterion of fidelity. Duty, however, 
as God's ambassadors, and as the shepherds of 
souls, is to be tested, not by visible success, but by 
faithfulness in the delivery of our message, and by 
the care, and watchfulness, and prayerfulness used 
in its discharge. Prophets, and apostles, and thou- 
sands of beloved laborers, both in heathen and in 
Christian lands, have toiled faithfully and toiled 
long without revivals, and God has been greatly 
glorified by their fidelity and labors. 

2. When a periodical recurrence of revivals is 
expected, there is danger of forgetting that the 
Holy Spirit is a free agent and sovereign, and 
there is a tendency in people to assume that re- 
vivals are subject to law, like the laws which gov- 
ern the material world. A revival preacher, in a 
communication to a religious paper, not long since, 
giving an account of such a visitation in which he 
had been the principal laborer, used this language : 
" I perceived now that the revival had spent its 
force" — the very language one would use if he 



236 PRA Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

were describing a storm at sea. And a very re- 
spectable writer, speaking of these seasons of 
mercy, says: "No one has yet succeeded in defi- 
nitely stating their law, or in bringing them under 
fixed conditions of time and circumstance." 

3. The mistake of supposing that God would 
have us rely on revivals as the means of the salva- 
tion of the children of the Church just as much, if 
not more, than He would have us rely on family 
religion and parental training. 

The carrying out this error in practice is what 
Bushnell calls "The ostrich nurture." He says: 
"Any one can see that Christian parents may very 
easily roll off a great part of their responsibilities, 
by just holding it as a principal hope for their chil- 
dren that they are to be finally taken up and res- 
cued from sin by revivals of religion. How agree- 
able to hope that gales of the Spirit will come, to 
make amends for conscious neglects of parental 
duty ! God will some time have His day of power 
in the community; and the}^ piously hope that 
their children will then be converted to Christ. 
But children have been so trained as never to re- 
member the time when they began to be religious. 
Baxter was at one time greatly troubled concerning 
himself, because he could not remember the time 



PR A V FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 237 

when there was a gracious change in his character. 
But he discovered, at length, that 'education is as 
properly a means of grace as preaching,' and thus 
found the sweeter comfort in his love to God, that 
he learned to love Him so early." 

Yes, parental nurture is the means which God 
has expressly appointed for the saving conversion 
of the children of believers ; and their saving con- 
version should be looked for and expected in this 
way, instead of through revivals. As God has 
commanded that this method of religious training 
should be employed, so, in the covenant with par- 
ents which embraces their children, He has ex- 
pressly promised that the use of this means shall 
be attended with His blessing. 

If what is supposed to be a work of grace, in any 
Church, is really a work of grace, the people are 
anxious to know what their duties are — if the Spirit 
of God is among them — their minds are tender and 
easily impressed. How favorable, then, is the op- 
portunity which the laborers in a genuine revival 
enjoy, of explaining to those who have children 
their parental duties ; of showing them the relation 
which their children sustain to the Church, and 
how they should be treated. But is it often the 
case that parents who are accustomed to revivals 



2 3 8 PRA Y F 0£ THE IIOL Y SPIRIT. 

perform their parental duties any better in conse- 
quence, and expect that their children and their 
children's children may be saved, as the result of 
religious training in the family, and in fulfilment 
of God's covenant promise? * 

4. Satan's kingdom is, of course, endangered by 
revivals, and, therefore, at such times he is very 
active. He naturally uses all his wiles and power 
to save his kingdom, and to injure the cause of our 
Saviour. We are all ready to forget this, because 
our faith is weak, and because we pay too little at- 
tention to what the Scriptures teach in regard to 
the Adversary. But those who are in the midst of 
revivals are especially in danger of underrating the 
power, vigilance, wiles, and activity cf Satan. 
Their situation is unfavorable to alertness and 
watchfulness against his arts, because they see lit- 



* " Admitting with gratitude all that can be said of the great 
advance made by the Church, in this country, within the last 
fifty or sixty years, there are loud and almost universal com- 
plaints made of the decay of family religion, of family training, 
and especially of the ecclesiastical instruction of the young. It 
is within the memory of many now living, that in almost every 
Congregationalist and Presbyterian family in the land, as a mat- 
ter of course, the children were regularly taught the ' Westmin- 
ster Catechism.' It is not so now." — Dr. Hodge s Theology, 
vol. iiz,, p. 572. . 



PR A Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 239 

tie going on which does not appear to them to be 
good, and just what the friends of Christ should 
desire. 

How should it affect our hearts to ' think, that 
often where the blessed Spirit is carrying on His 
work with peculiar power, there are persons who 
are concerned about their salvation, without enjoy- 
ing the benefit of the guidance and instruction of 
wise and competent leaders, and that in this condi- 
tion they are exposed not only to the harm which 
their own treacherous hearts may do them, but to 
the wiles of Satan and of fallen spirits ! The apos- 
tle teaches us to consider the power of hostile and 
designing men to pervert and destroy as far in- 
ferior to that of principalities, and powers, and 
spiritual wickedness in high places. If the influ- 
ences and operations of evil spirits could only be 
detected, their power would not be so great, but 
these influences never reveal themselves any more 
than do the influences and operations of holy an- 
gels for good. We have every reason to believe 
that revivals are occurring in some parts of Chris- 
tendom at all times ; and how earnest should be 
our daily prayer that God would preserve them 
from Satan's malicious interference! But how sel- 
dom is this prayer offered ! 



240 PRA Y F0R THE H0L Y SPIRIT. 

5. Many having grown up in ignorance of the 
truths of the Scriptures, find themselves some day 
in the midst of a revival, and soon indulge the 
hope of having passed from death unto life. Now, 
if experience is a teacher to be relied on, a danger- 
ous mistake is committed when no fear is enter- 
tained that the conversion of such persons is spuri- 
ous. Rarely is it the case that this class arrive at 
correct ideas of what religion, in its real nature, is. 
How often has it been seen that the religion of a 
community who have grown up in ignorance is 
but the destructive fire of fanaticism ! We must 
not rely on other things without instruction. We 
should obediently and cheerfully conform to God's 
method. If religion ever flourishes, it is when the 
people are well-instructed in the truth. Without 
this thorough instruction, it barely exists. Noth- 
ing, indeed, is impossible with God ; and those 
who have passed their years in ignorance are often 
truly changed by His grace, but they are not the 
most hopeful subjects of conversion. So that, 
while their conversion should not be despaired of 
in a time of religious excitement, yet to be exer- 
cised with no anxiety and fear on their account, 
and to admit them hastily, is to be cruel to them, 
and unfaithful to the Church's Head. 



PR J Y FOR THE HOL V SPIRIT. 24 1 

6. It is sometimes the case, though not always, 
that before a revival the decay of godliness is so 
great, while the prevalence of worldliness and im- 
morality is so fearful that a copious effusion of the 
Spirit is positively and absolutely necessary, just 
as unusual remedies are sometimes necessary to 
save life. Now, because God is willing, in His in- 
finite condescension, love, and goodness, to pour 
out, in this state of things, His Holy Spirit, and 
thus save the Church, it is a fatal mistake to sup- 
pose that He overlooked the prevailing irreligion 
and deadness which imperatively called for the 
work of grace. The prayers of Christians for a 
blessed remedy of this kind against the advance of 
moral and spiritual death slowly creeping over the 
Church and the land, ought to be characterized by 
humiliation, self-abasement, and confession. It was 
in this spirit that Ezra and Nehemiah prayed for a 
revival. They did not feel that Gocl had bound 
Himself to do what they besought Him to do. 
They prayed with broken hearts and with confes- 
sion. They humbly and affectionately importuned 
God to give plentifully His Soirit. remembering 
that their people had forfeited the blessing since 
they, had not feared the Lord, nor remembered His 

commandments to do them. If these holy men, 
ii 



242 PAA Y FOfi THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

when they besought God to revive His people, 
were thus penitent and felt that. He might justly 
forsake and cast off forever the entire nation, then 
certainly it becomes professors to pray for religious 
reviving with humiliation, who are conscious that 
a special season of visitation, so far from being 
needed by formalists alone and those outside of the 
Church, seems to be the only hope left even for 
themselves and their neglected children, some of 
whom perhaps have* already departed from the way 
they should go. Perhaps times of refreshing would 
be vouchsafed more frequently, were they always 
petitioned for in this spirit. 

7. It is a very grievous mistake, and yet by no 
means an uncommon one, to underrate the impor- 
tance of paying attention to the fruits of the re- 
vival. It is the opinion of some who are compe- 
tent to judge, that full half the benefit of revivals 
is lost from neglect of those who have been con- 
verted. Some pastors do next to nothing by way 
of visiting, praying with and for, warning, exhort- 
ing, and feeding these lambs of Christ. Christ not 
only cares for them, but He wills that His servants 
should care for them and cherish them " as a nurse 
cherishes her children. " " Young converts are ig- 
norant. They cannot have learned the whole will 



PR A Y FOR THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 243 

of God, especially those who have almost entirely 
neglected His W ord. They often stumble, through 
misapprehension. They not only need instruction, 
but the utmost kindness on the part of their minis- 
ters and brethren. They may have formed wrong 
notions of the nature and effects of religion. They 
not unfrequently mistake faith for presumption, or 
compare themselves with what others appear to be, 
instead of with the Bible, and thus get into dark- 
ness and doubts. They have not as much feeling 
as they expected to have. Now these and many 
other difficulties incident to spiritual infancy and 
childhood are to be met and rectified in the spirit 
of sympathy and kindness, if we would save the 
subjects of them from discouragement and back- 
sliding. The private members of the Church 
should treat converts with attention as well as 
ministers. They should interest themselves in the 
experience and progress of each one. This will 
give the Church an influence over them, to keep 
them in the way, and restore them should they 
wander. The affectionate watch and care which 
they will thus have, will hold them to the Church 
by indissoluble ties." 

These are some of the hurtful mistakes and errors 
which, though they may not be accompanied by 



244 PRA y F0R THE 110 L Y SPIRI T- 

extravagances and injurious excitements, yet more 
or less prevail wherever communities are blessed 
with frequent revivals, and are accustomed to look 
for them. They are in no sense objections to re- 
vivals ; but, as was said, it is important that our 
attention should be directed to them. While those 
who love Zion and the perishing souls of men will 
pray much that the whole Church may often enjoy 
seasons of refreshing, and powerful and extensive 
awakenings, they will also earnestly entreat God to 
watch over these revivals, guard them, and preserve 
them from such evils as have been enumerated. No 
revival of unmingled purity was ever enjoyed, and it 
would, of course, be unreasonable to expect that in 
time to come, any more than hitherto, Satan will 
permit wheat to be sown without sowing tares. 
Nevertheless, it is certain that much can be accom- 
plished by prayer to prevent these seasons from 
being perverted and abused. 

It has been the design of these pages, reader, to 
show you what unspeakable blessings you may 
secure for yourself by praying much for the Holy 
Spirit, and what almost limitless good you may do 
by seeking His influences for others. In conclu- 
sion, permit me to remind you of what God has 



PR A V FOR THE II OL V SPIRIT. 24 5 

done to inflame and excite your desires for this 
priceless gift. 

How did He keep alive in the hearts of His 
ancient people a longing for their Messiah's com- 
ing ? By causing His prophets to announce His 
approach in prediction after prediction, abounding 
in the most lively representations of the glories 
which would attend and follow His appearing. 
Now, in a similar way, He has sought to arouse 
and stimulate our desires for the Spirit of grace, of 
truth, and of holiness. For, by the pens of these 
same prophets, He has promised to the Church 
His Holy Spirit, with a frequency, particularity, 
and magnificence of language " which has led be- 
lievers themselves to mark that gift with supreme 
distinction by calling it the Promise, and which 
showed that He, the divine Promiser, regarded it 
as identical with a state of distinguished prosper- 
ity/' We cannot but feel that God regards the 
gift of the Spirit as next in value to that of His 
own Son. How intensely should we long for its 
possession ! 

The inward change in which salvation in part 
consists, is effected entirely by this blessed Agent. 
He alone is the Author of holiness, and of ail those 
graces which every believer so loves and so covets. 



246 Y F 0R THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

But why have we been told this? Why has it 
been so clearly revealed to us, seeing that it would 
have been enough had the Bible simply taught us 
that to infinite power we are indebted for these 
priceless blessings ? The answer is plain. It has 
been carefully and explicitly declared that that 
Person of the Trinity who enriches us with these 
gifts is the Holy Spirit, in order that love to Him 
might be enkindled in our souls, with ever-growing 
desires for His presence, His indwelling, and His 
inworking. 

But what, above all things, is fitted to make the 
Church welcome with joy this blessed Visitant, is 
the teachings of our Saviour concerning Him, when 
He was upon earth. Our Lord taught that the 
presence of the Spirit with His Church is more 
important than His own bodily presence. " My 
tarrying with you," He says, " would be attended 
with greater loss than you are able to bear ; for, if 
I remain, the Comforter will not come to you. It 
is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not 
away, the Comforter will not come to you." " What 
must be the value of that gift which would supply the 
place of the orb of day, and make us cease to de- 
plore its extinction ?" 

The first intercessory prayer, therefore, which 



PJtA Y FOR THE BOL Y SPIRIT. 2 AJ 

our Saviour presented in heaven after His ascen- 
sion, was for the gift to His Church of the Holy 
Spirit. And the Spirit came down, as He had 
promised. What the object of His mission would 
be, Jesus showed, when He said : " He shall 
glorify me : for he shall receive of mine, and shall 
show it unto you." 

Finally, our Lord, when He was in the world, 
assured us that this one blessing comprises the 
essence of all good. One evangelist represents 
Him as promising all good things to them that ask, 
but the report of His words by another shows us 
that by this all-comprehending offer, He expressly 
intends His Holy Spirit, thus leaving us to infer 
" that universal good and the Divine Spirit define 
each other, or that they are one and the same 
thing." We are also taught by our Lord's words 
that the Spirit is the only and unchangeable good. 

" What more can be necessary to turn our whole 
soul into desire? — to turn all our most ardent 
thoughts and longings into one channel, pouring 
forth a copious stream of supplication for the one 
great gift of the Spirit? Is it possible that we can 
ask for any inferior good till we have obtained this? 
Had we an adequate impression of its magnitude, 
we should forget that any other want existed ; cur 



248 FRA Y FOR THE HOL V SPIRIT. 

entreaties would rise in energy and earnestness as 
we moved forward to the attainment of the bless- 
ing ; our cry would ascend, and peal with ceaseless 
importunity at the gate of heaven — would go unto 
the Almighty, even into His holy place ; we should 
ask, and seek, and knock, till He had bestowed it 
with a liberality which left nothing for our fears to 
apprehend, or our expectations to desire." * 



* Harris' " Great Teacher." 



APPENDIX; 



APPENDIX, 



The Condition and Character of the French, as affected 
by the Suppression of the Reformation. 

( Referred to on page 22S.J 

TN no country in Europe was the Christian relig- 
ion more cordially embraced after the Reforma- 
tion had begun than in France ; in no country did it 
make more rapid progFess. Why God permitted 
it to be almost entirely rooted -out by its bitter 
haters in so short a time, is more than any man can 
tell. God is wont to move in a mysterious way. 
He calls upon us to trust in Him when clouds and 
darkness are round about Him. 

The people of this country and of England often 
speak with contempt of the ■ irreligious, unstable, 
and superficial character of the French nation. 
Perhaps as it regards some things, this is its char- 
acter. But is this a matter of wonder? Would 
not the national character and the political condi- 

(251) 



252 APPEA T DIX. 

tion of the French have been altogether different, 
had God permitted the Reformation to have the 
same success in France which attended its course 
in some countries neighboring to it? 

The massacre of St. Bartholomew, in 1572, was 
preceded by the most terrible persecution of the 
Reformed. In the year 1562 they were slaugh- 
tered in many towns and cities all over France. 
With the massacre of St. Bartholomew every one 
is familiar. It was immediately followed by similar 
diabolical deeds in all parts of the kingdom. The 
number killed on, and shortly after, St. Bartholo- 
mew's day has been variously estimated from 
30,000 to 100,000. No doubt there were many 
thousands of individual rpurders of which the his- 
torians of that day were entirely ignorant, or which 
were not deemed by them worthy of special record. 
It is known that in many of the provincial towns 
not a single Huguenot was left alive. It was in- 
tended that the butchery should be much greater 
than it was. The design had been deliberately 
formed of destroying at one blow the whole body 
of Huguenots in France — of murdering in cold 
blood one entire class of the nation. 

In 1598 Henry the Fourth issued the Edict of 
Nantes, which secured to the Reformed, after sixty 



APPENDIX. 253 

3'ears of persecution, the rights of worship, though 
from civil office and from political employment 
this people were still excluded. They devoted 
themselves, for the most part, to industrial pursuits, 
and they were acknowledged to be not only the 
best agriculturists, but the most skilled artisans in 
France. They were still persecuted, notwithstand- 
ing the edict of Henry the Fourth; and, in i68x, 
the famous dragonades were instituted. The 
scenes of brutality which were enacted during 
these dragonades cannot be described, for the sol- 
diers were the roughest, loosest, and crudest of 
men. At last, the Edict of Nantes was revoked. 
The cruel act of relocation was published on the 
22d of October, 1686. Then were the people hunted 
like wild beasts, robbed of their children, sent to 
the galleys by thousands, and murdered by thou- 
sands, by methods of the most refined cruelty. 
The Reformed religion was proscribed, nearly all 
the churches of this people that remained in France 
were destroyed, and they were prohibited, under 
fearful penalties, from instructing their children in 
their own faith. Thus rigorously was this terrible 
edict — this war against the rights of conscience — 
enforced. 

No nation in the world could afford to lose what 



France lost, as the result of these impolitic, these 
detestably wicked acts of her Popish rulers. For, 
without considering the very many thousands who 
were murdered, immense swarms — sufficient to 
constitute a small nation — of the best people of the 
country sought safety in exile, while property to 
the value of millions of money was taken to foreign 
lands. The prodigious exodus of the French peo- 
ple which followed the revocation of the Edict of 
Nantes constitutes one of the most important his- 
torical events of the seventeenth century. Manv 
of them were likewise driven to expatriate them- 
selves in the persecutions of 171 5, 1724, and 1744. 
The}' settled in nearly all the countries of Europe, 
and there was not a country which received them 
which the} 7 did not enrich. The Huguenot mer- 
chants, artisans, and literati, who fled to England, 
exercised an immense influence on English indus- 
try and English literature. Indeed, there is no 
computing how much of her prosperity England 
owes to the great waves of population which 
flowed over to her from France in those times. 

She received the fugitives kindly, and richlv did * 
they repay her, for they gave a new impulse to her 
manufactures, and introduced many entirely new 
branches of industry. The}: were skilled, intelli- 



APPENDIX. 255 

gent, and laborious, and they were among the most 
virtuous people in the world. 

By thus persecuting unto death and exile on ac- 
count of their religion this immense body of 
French citizens, whose active pursuit of commerce, 
the arts, literature, and science, was advancing the 
best interests of their country, the Popish Bour- 
bons inflicted lasting evils on France. The pros- 
perity of Nantes, Tours, Lyons, and other cities 
was destroyed. Hundreds of manufactories were 
closed, whole villages were depopulated, many 
large towns half deserted, and large tracts of land 
went altogether out of cultivation. These persecu- 
tions, moreover, paved the way for the miseries 
which, from those times to the present, have 
afflicted the nation. Even the historian Alison ad- 
mits (we would hardly expect it of him) that " the 
revocation of the Edict of Nantes was the chief re- 
mote cause of the French Revolution, and the ter- 
rible evils brought upon the government were the 
natural consequence and just retribution of that 
abominable act of religious oppression/' " The 
severities/' says another writer, "made France 
what she was at the Revolution — prepared the na- 
tion for scourging themselves — and led to the san- 
guinary scenes perpetrated in Paris and Lyons.'' 



256 APPENDIX. 

Her sufferings did not end with the reign of ter- 
ror. It is sickening to contemplate what the nation 
endured under the Empire. " The setting sun of 
Austerlitz alone saw twelve thousand French in 
their gore.' , Under the Empire the able-bodied 
men of France perished in her wars at the rate of 
more than two hundred thousand a year. The 
destruction of her youth during the twenty-five 
years of her revolutionary war so deteriorated 
the physical stature of the population that a large 
part of the recruits for the army have been, for a 
long time, rejected as dwarfish or unsound ; and if 
the standard height of the French army were the 
same now as before the revolution, half the men 
actually under arms must be discharged. 

But the saddest result of the oppressive policy of 
Louis XIV. and his wicked counsellors was, that 
the French character became almost the opposite 
of what it would have been had the gospel been 
permitted to have unobstructed course. The 
French are said to be destitute of rooted moral 
convictions. God does not seem to be for them a 
living person, nor the future life a solemn reality. 
They do not act in view of eternal truths. There 
is a great lack of conscience in them and of moral 
power. Their character is " one-sided and super- 



APPENDIX. 257 

ficial, excitable but not strong, impulsive but not 
enduring. The} r prefer glory to duty, eclat to self- 
respect, success to right. 5 ' All this may be true ; but 
did not the nation, in the inscrutable providence of 
God, undergo precisely that which was adapted to 
make her what she is? It becomes us who have 
been so much more favored, not to be boastful, but 
humble. Utterly deprive this country or England 
of all the people who constitute the very salt of 
these nations, and then, in addition to this, cruelly 
keep the masses from having access to the Bible, and 
cut them off from all opportunity, for generations, 
of knowing and of being influenced and moulded 
by its truths; and who that knows what man is, 
can believe that we would have any reason for 
boasting of our superiority? We cannot too fer- 
vently thank God that we have never, for a long 
period, been forcibly kept in ignorance of the truths 
of the Bible, subject in the meantime to the im- 
mense power of education in favor of irreligion. 
When, at last, the Reformation in France was al- 
most entirely crushed, she lost the conservative 
moral influence of its religious doctrines, while her 
mental energy soon revived, and the public mind 
fled for refuge to the only alternative — philosophi- 
cal and atheistical speculations. 



ft* 



r 
> 



